


California Girls, A Grim Interlude.

by steeleye



Series: It's Grim Up North. [6]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Hidden (1987)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, xover fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-24 07:55:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6146854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye





	1. Chapter 1

California Girls.

A Grim Interlude.

By Steeleye.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer that’s all down to Joss and those wacky people known as Mutant Enemy. ‘The Hidden’ was written by, Jim Kouf and directed by, Jack Sholder. I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Crossover:** The Hidden.

 **Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious English-English. Which is different to American-English.

 **Timeline:** Post ‘Chosen’, no comics. Set at roughly the same time as my fic ‘Love Conquers All Things’.

 **Words:** Eight chapters of 2000+ words.

 **Warnings:** None.

 **Summary:** “He sees something he wants,” Buffy explained, “he steals it. If someone gets in his way, he kills them.” “So what are you saying?” Kate asked, “That there’s some kind of demon jumping from body to body on a one monster crime wave?”

0=0=0=0

**California Girls.**

Climbing out of the cab, Buffy lifted her face to the sky and smiled, it was great to feel the California sun on her skin again. Turning to watch as the driver got her luggage out of the trunk she let her eyes roam up and down the street outside the Metro Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, it felt so good to be back in America again. Tipping the driver, she turned to face the hotel just in time to see a porter come out pushing a trolley to pick up her luggage.

This was the life, Buffy sighed happily, no more lugging her own bags into seedy motels; now that they’d got full control of the old Council’s finances she could afford to stay in nice hotels like this. Following the porter into reception, Buffy sighed with relief as she walked into the air-conditioned splendour of the reception area. Although she’d not worn a vest today, she’d grown so accustomed to the cool (no make that darn-right cold) temperatures of northern England that she found LA just a little warm for her now. Whatever, Buffy shrugged her shoulders under her tank top; she expected she’d get used to it again.

“Good morning ma’am,” Buffy looked up to find she’d reached the check-in desk and the girl behind the counter was grinning at her so hard it must hurt.

“Room in the name of Summers?” Buffy searched in her bag for her passport, the hotel clerk was bound to want to see it. 

Sure enough the receptionist asked for Buffy’s passport and gave it a cursory examination. Satisfied the clerk handed Buffy’s passport back to her along with a card-key. Following the porter and her luggage across the reception foyer, Buffy went over the reasons for her visit in her mind. She’d come to make contact with Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. No one had seen or even heard from him in several years. Giles had discovered that the old council had fired him after his screw up with herself and Faith. Everyone had sort of assumed he was either dead or sitting drunk in a bar somewhere in South America (why South America, Buffy didn’t know, it just seemed to fit).

However, a couple of years ago, about the time Buffy was fighting The First he’d sent her an amulet that had enabled her to destroy The First’s army of ubervamps; unfortunately it had also killed Spike who’d volunteered to wear the thing (Buffy having claimed that she had no outfits that would go with it). In the confusion after Sunnydale, the abortive trip to Cleveland, Ohio and the eventually decanting of the slayer organisation to England. All attempts at contacting Wyndam-Pryce had been put on hold; until Giles had discovered the ex-watcher was running a detective agency in LA which specialised in ‘unusual’ cases. Buffy had volunteered to go to LA and make contact with Wesley and any slayers that might be working there.

Looking up, Buffy found herself by the elevators. The porter pressed the call button and a moment later the doors slid open. At first Buffy didn’t really pay much attention to the attractive, dark haired, woman that stepped from the lift. Looking up from her search of her bag (she seemed to have misplaced the address book Giles had given her) she looked straight into the face of the young woman as she walked by.

“Cordelia?” Buffy said to herself quietly; she looked at the porter and smiled, “Hold on a minute please.” Running the few steps needed to catch up with Cordelia, Buffy touched her on the arm, “Cordelia, is that you?” The woman turned to study Buffy, it was indeed Cordelia. “Hey! You look well,” Buffy looked her up and down; nice clothes, make up, hair, enormous bust, “and erm, big!”

“I’m sorry,” it was Cordelia’s voice as well, “you must have me mistaken for someone else.”

Cordelia turned to go, once again Buffy caught hold of her arm holding her back.

“Come on Cordy,” Buffy frowned, “it’s me, Buffy I’d know you…”

Suddenly a guy interposed himself between Cordelia and Buffy.

“Everything alright here, Miss Chase?” he asked while at the same time giving Buffy a very menacing look.

Looking up at the guy, Buffy saw a very tall, young, black guy with a shaved head; he wore a sharp, yet conservative suit, expensive Italian shoes and a frown that said, ‘keep away from Cordy’ in very large letters.

“No Charles,” Cordelia sighed and stifled a yawn, “This young woman has totally mistaken me for someone else and she won’t _go away_!” Cordelia said the last while giving Buffy a really hard stare and jerking her head towards the elevators.

“I’m sorry Miss,” ‘Charles’ drew himself up to his full impressive height to tower over Buffy, “but whoever you think Miss Chase is, she isn’t. I suggest you walk away and enjoy the rest of your stay in LA, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Buffy frowned, what the hell was going on here, she asked herself, but even she could take a hint, “Sorry, I-I must have…”

The rest of Buffy’s apology died on her lips as Cordy and ‘Charles’, however he was, swept from the foyer.

0=0=0=0

Confused and not a little concerned by her meeting with Cordelia, Buffy didn’t really pay much attention to the rest of the trip to her room. Absently she tipped the porter then locked the door behind him after he’d deposited her luggage. Walking over to the window, Buffy noted the suite was larger than the entire chalet where she lived on the old holiday camp back in Saltburn-by-the-Sea. Looking out over LA she wondered what the hell Cordelia had been playing at and how come she’d suddenly got those huge boobs.

‘Suddenly’ wasn’t really the right word, Buffy admitted, she’d not seen Cordy since high school so there were bound to be some changes, but surely nothing so extreme as those things. Perhaps she’d had surgery or something…and who the hell was this guy ‘Charles’? Buffy’s mind bounced from one question to another; he didn’t look as if he was holding Cordy against her will, in fact quite the opposite. He appeared to be looking out for her…bodyguard maybe? But then why would Cordy need a bodyguard? Buffy grinned and laughed to herself. Maybe the question she should be asking was; why wouldn’t Cordy need a bodyguard?

Shaking her head as all these questions flew around her brain, Buffy sighed and turned away from the window. Looking at her luggage, she decided to let house-keeping unpack her stuff; there was nothing incriminating, you couldn’t even take a wooden stake on a plane after 9-11. Grabbing her bag, she headed towards the door, she needed stuff; she needed weapons, a good knife and a few stakes would do for now. A cellphone, she couldn’t use her own, it probably wouldn’t work in LA as it was from Britain. Plus she needed cash; okay, she had her ‘company’ credit card and cheque book, but the places she was likely to go she’d need cash. Having noticed a bank down the street from the hotel as she’d arrived, she decided to go there and cash some traveller’s cheques.

0=0=0=0

Having been cooped up in aircraft and taxis for the last twenty-four hours or more, Buffy enjoyed the short walk to the Wells Fargo Bank on the corner of North Spring Street and Yale. Having stopped off at a store, she’d bought herself a throw away cellphone, she was just pulling it from its packaging as she entered the bank. Looking up she cursed under her breath, the place was pretty busy.

“Darn!” Buffy walked towards the shortest looking queue, “what’s the betting someone’s paying in five years worth of quarters?”

Standing in the queue, Buffy started to put numbers into the memory of the phone. As she worked something drew her attention to a guy, there was something about him that made her feel uneasy. Glancing up under her eyebrows, she studied the man as her fingers punched in numbers on her phone. He was just standing there about halfway into the bank, average height, blondish hair, gold rimmed glasses, business suit under his raincoat. Raincoat? Buffy frowned, no one wore a raincoat in LA at this time of the year. Looking ‘round, Buffy shuffled a couple of feet closer to the teller as the man with the quarters walked away. Movement further into the bank distracted her from her study of the guy in the raincoat. Two bank guards and a security guard from an outside security company walked slowly towards the door. The security guard carried several sacks of what were obviously dollar bills while the bank guards scanned the crowd for trouble.

Ignoring the guards, Buffy waited impatiently for the teller to finish with the customer in front of her. As she waited she found herself going back to thinking about the man in the raincoat. Nobody wore raincoats in LA unless…suddenly the thought hit her like a brick in the face. Unless they were hiding something underneath it! As the guards came level with raincoat-guy, he pulled a pump action shotgun from under his raincoat. First he shot the two bank guards, then he shot the guard with the money.

“FREEZE!” the cry came from another bank guard standing by the main doors, he pulled his pistol from his holster and pointed it at raincoat-guy.

Turning, raincoat-guy fired at the guard who got off a shot at almost the same instant. The shot gun blast hit the guard full in the chest and blew him off his feet. Buffy could smell blood and gunpowder as she crouched on the floor. All around her people were screaming as they either tried to run or took shelter on the floor. The woman behind her in the queue just stood there screaming not knowing whether to run or hide; Buffy reached up and grabbed the woman pulling her to the floor. Hugging the terrified woman Buffy tried to get her to stop screaming while all the time watching the robber. He was just standing there; the fact that the guard’s bullet had actually hit him didn’t appear to be causing him any pain or distress what-so-ever.

“Darn-it,” Buffy muttered, “PCP or demon?”

He didn’t ‘feel’ like a demon, but he didn’t feel exactly like a normal human either, there was just something off about him. For a moment Buffy considered taking the guy down, she weighed up her chances. Pump action shotgun against slayer speed? Normally she’d have taken the risk but there were far too many innocent civilians around. If he fired at her, missed and hit someone else she’d never forgive herself, best to just watch and wait.

Slowly the guy walked over to the three downed guards and picked up the bags of money. Once again Buffy asked herself the question, money was heavy, the robber had picked up two big bags in one hand without any visible effort. Must be a demon, she told herself. Turning towards the door the robber paused to look at something. What the heck now? Buffy asked herself, what was he doing, why didn’t he just go away?

Searching to see what he was looking at, Buffy followed his gaze; he was staring at a CCTV camera and grinning! Cool bastard, Buffy shook her head in disbelief, whatever he was he didn’t care if anyone saw his face. Slowly he raised the shotgun single handed and pointed it at the camera. Firing he blew the camera to tiny little pieces before walking calmly to the door where he shot a man who was just coming into the bank unaware that a robbery was in progress.

As the doors opened, Buffy could hear the sound of people screaming as they ran for cover and the sound of approaching police sirens. It looked like the ordeal was over; climbing slowly to her feet, Buffy ran over to the door and looked out into the street. She saw the robber throw the bags of money into a red Ferrari and climb in after them. The engine burst into life, there was a cloud of smoke as the wheels spun on the tarmac and the robber sped off down the road pursued by two police cars.

Not wishing to spend the rest of the day in the company of the LAPD, Buffy pushed open the door and briskly walked off down the street away from the bank and her hotel. After taking a few random turns before heading back to the hotel, she really didn’t want to be traced. Only having a limited amount of time in LA and she didn’t want to spend any of it helping the police. After all, she hadn’t seen anything that twenty other people hadn’t seen.

As she walked, Buffy could hear more police sirens in the distance, chances were they’d catch the robber after a high speed chase that she’d be able to watch on TV when she got back to the hotel. Head down, Buffy started to think about what she’d seen at the bank. The guard’s bullet had definitely hit the robber in the side and he’d not even flinched. That was bad, okay he could have been wearing a bullet proof vest, but the force of the bullet striking home should still have made him stagger at the very least.

Then there was the feeling of ‘wrongness’ she’d picked up. Not demon but not fully human either. Buffy decided she needed to talk with Giles, were there any demons that didn’t come up on a slayer’s personnel radar…a sort of ‘stealth-demon’? Buffy sighed heavily and looked around to work out where she was.

“Great!” she said aloud as she stood on the sidewalk hands on hips, “I’ve not been in LA for twenty-four hours yet and not only have I witnessed a bank hold up but now I’m lost!”

0=0=0=0


	2. Chapter 2

2.

**The following morning.**

The following morning, Buffy got-up, showered, dressed and ate breakfast in her room as she watched the morning news. After a car chase that had left a trail of death and destruction across LA the bank robber had finally been caught. The police had trapped him between the chase cars and a roadblock. The robber, however, had chosen to try and break through the police cordon and crashed. Oddly he’d survived after being shot and blown up; he was at present in a local hospital under police guard. No one expected him to live the day out.

Frowning at the TV, Buffy couldn’t quite make up her mind whether she should be concerned about the robbery or not. It could all be perfectly natural, but, she kept remembering the feeling of unease she’d had around the robber, the hint of ‘wrongness’ that nagged at her from the back of her mind. Giles hadn’t been much help and phoning up in what was, to him, the crack of dawn hadn’t helped. He’d told her that as far as he could remember a slayer could sense any demon. So, either he wasn’t a demon, or, he was using magic to mask himself. After a promise to look into it for her, Giles had hung up. 

Sitting and staring unseeingly at her rather limited selection of shoes, Buffy wondered what she should do about the robbery, did she _need_ to do anything? After all the police had the man in custody and he wasn’t expected to live so… Jumping to her feet Buffy came to a decision, she was going to make contact with Wesley today. He was supposed to run a detective agency, perhaps she’d get him to look into it for her. After that maybe she’d have time for some heavy duty shopping after which she could find out what was up with Cordelia.

0=0=0=0

**Later that morning.**

The cab stopped outside a tall brick built office building, it was about ten-thirty and the sun was beating down on Buffy making her feel uncomfortably hot. As she paid off the taxi she sighed longingly for the cooler temperatures of northern England. California was nice but she wasn’t used to the heat of LA. Walking up the stairs and through the front door, Buffy was glad to find herself in the cool, dimly lit hall of the old office block. The building might be old but it was well cared for; Buffy looked around appreciatively, not a bad place to have an office, she mused. Local parking (always a good thing in LA) it was close to the local shops and restaurants, all good for clandestine meetings and the getting of lunch.

Looking around the entrance hall Buffy caught sight of the notice board that would tell her where to find the Wyndam-Pryce Detective Agency. Buffy smiled, trust Wesley to use his own name for his detective agency, a thought struck her as she looked up at the board. What other name was he to use? Shrugging her shoulders, she saw that Wesley’s agency was right here on the ground floor. Turning she caught sight of a door with the logo, ‘Wyndam-Pryce Detective Agency – We help the Hopeless’ written in gold paint on the glass.

Moving towards the door, Buffy noted how the blinds on the windows to either side of the door were closed as were the blinds on the glass half of the door. Walking up to the door, Buffy noticed a hand written note saying, ‘Please come on in – We’re open!’ Accepting the invitation, Buffy opened the door and walked in.

The office was very much like the rest of the building; neat, well kept and with an air of the nineteen-thirties. To the left of the door was a semi-secluded seating area while to the right was a couple of rows of filing cabinets. This little area was separated from the rest of the office by some banisters and two steps that led down into main part of the room. A blonde secretary sat at a desk talking on the phone, she didn’t appear to have noticed Buffy, but Buffy had noticed her. Getting a distinctive ‘vamp-vibe’ off the girl, (which explained why all the blinds were closed) Buffy looked around for a weapon, she’d still not ‘geared-up’ and she was beginning to regret not having made the time. The blonde vampire looked up at Buffy a wide welcoming smile on her face.

“Harmony!” Buffy took a step towards her one time high school…enemy wasn’t really the right word…Buffy settled for ‘annoyance’.

“Agh!” squeaked the girl as she fumbled for the phone, “Buffy!” lifting the receiver Harmony pressed buttons almost at random, “Please don’t stake me!” then into the phone, “BOSS!? You’d totally better get out here!”

“What are you doing here?” Buffy strode over to Harmony’s desk and lifted her from her chair by the collar of her jacket.

“She works for me, actually.”

Glancing to her right Buffy saw Wesley standing in the doorway to what was obviously another office. He stared at her with a slightly disapproving look on his face.

“Wes?” Buffy almost let go of Harmony she was so surprised at the changes in the man, “Have you been working out?”

“If you wouldn’t mind letting go of my receptionist,” Wesley adjusted his spectacles, “maybe you’d like to come into my office and talk?”

“Yeah, right…why not?” Casting Harmony an ‘I’ll deal with you later’ look, Buffy let go of the vamp-girl.

“You just carry on with your work, Harmony,” Wesley stepped aside to let Buffy into his office, “I’ll deal with Miss Summers.”

Walking into Wesley’s office, Buffy saw a big dark wood desk, shelves lining the walls and groaned under the weight of the books resting on them plus a rather thin but otherwise attractive young woman.

“Winifred Burkle,” Wesley introduced the young woman, “my associate.” Sitting down behind his desk Wesley continued with the introductions, “Fred, this is Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer, or should I say, ‘a’ vampire slayer?”

“Pleased to meet you,” Fred had a Texas accent and smiled at Buffy as she held out her hand.

“Oh,” Buffy took Fred’s hand and shook it, “it’s still _the_ vampire slayer; you know, the original and best.”

“Do you want me to go?” Fred made as if to leave the office.

“No,” Wesley settled himself in his chair and indicated that both Fred and Buffy should sit down also, “I’d like you to stay, I think what Miss Summers has to say concerns us both.”

“So, Wes,” Buffy sat across the desk and studied Wesley for a moment, “how’s things?”

What she saw was a man who had grown in many ways since she’d last seen him; he looked mentally and physically tougher than she remembered him. There was certain coldness in his eyes, except when he looked at Fred. Buffy guessed they were more than just business associates.

“Very good, thank-you, Miss Summers,” Wesley looked coldly at Buffy, it was obvious that he didn’t like her being here, “but I’m sure this isn’t a social call.”

“Umm, no…” Buffy decided that now probably wasn’t the time to talk about setting up a slayer support organisation in LA, “I was wondering if you could look into something for me?”

“That depends,” Wesley rested his elbows on the arms of his chair and interlaced his fingers under his chin, “on what it is, I’m sure Harmony knows the locations of all the best shoe shops in LA”

“Yeah, right,” Buffy got the distinct impression that not only wasn’t she welcome here, but she was also being gently mocked; the feeling was confirmed by the hard glare Fred cast Wesley, “I wasn’t going to ask for shopping advice…at least not yet.” Buffy shook her head to clear it of the visions of shopping malls that momentarily filled it; she tried to get back onto the subject she wanted to talk about, “Y’know the Wells Fargo bank raid yesterday?” Buffy paused as Wesley nodded his head, “Well I was there…” Buffy spent the next five minutes explaining what she’d seen and more importantly what she’d felt during the raid.

“Interesting,” Wesley leaned forward resting his hands on his desk, “we were just discussing that very subject before you…arrived.”

“Yeah,” Fred smiled across the room at Buffy, “Wes was saying that he thought it was a demon. We have contacts at the hospital where the police have the robber; he’s a lot more badly hurt than the police are telling people.”

“Indeed,” Wesley agreed, “I had Harmony do some research and she came up with some very interesting information.”

“Harmony? Research?” Was all Buffy could say.

“Correct,” Wesley took a slim file from the drawer of his desk, opening it he started to read, “until two weeks ago Jack De Vries was a perfectly normal, law abiding stockbroker.” Wesley looked at Buffy over the top of his glasses.

“I can totally hear the enormous ‘but’ coming,” Buffy sighed.

“Yes quite so, then he killed twelve people and wounded twenty-three more, stole six cars, mostly Ferraris, robbed eight banks and six supermarkets, four jewellery stores and a candy store. Six of the people he killed he carved up with a knife, two of them were children.”

Wesley paused to gauge Buffy’s reaction.

“Sounds like…” Buffy began but was interrupted by Wesley.

“A typical, if extremely violent case of demonic possession,” Wesley slipped the file back into his desk.

“And you say Harmony found all that?” Buffy shook her head in surprise, “Gotta say I’m impressed.”

“Yes Harmony’s changed since you knew her,” Wesley let a small smile play across his lips, “in more ways than one.”

“Do you know what sort of demon we’re dealing with?” Buffy decided that as soon as she’d finished here she was going to ‘weapon up’.

“Some sorta chaos demon I expect,” explained Fred, “but we’ve not been able to pin it down exactly yet.”

“I’m beginning to think that it’s something new…” Wesley began but was interrupted when the door burst open.

“WESLEY!” a youngish dark haired man stumbled into the office followed swiftly by Harmony who appeared to be trying to hold the man upright.

“Sorry boss,” Harmony stood indecisively in the doorway, “he wouldn’t wait…I said you were with a client.”

“That’s perfectly alright Harmony,” Wesley stood up and helped the young man to a spare chair, “another vision?”

“Right,” the man sat down in the chair and rested his head in his hands, “felt like the bastard Powers were trying to crack me head right open.”

“This is Doyle,” Wesley explained to Buffy, “our conduit to the Powers-that-be.”

“Conduit be damned!” Doyle had a slight Irish accent, “Bloody plaything of the gods more like…” he seemed to notice Buffy for the first time, his reaction to her presence was not what any of them had expected, “YOU!?!?”

“Me?” Buffy got ready to either fight or run.

“YOU!” Doyle pointed an accusing finger at her.

“Vision?” Buffy hoped that someone would explain what the hell was going on here because these single word sentences were getting tedious.

“Vision?” chorused Wesley and Fred, “Buffy?”

“Yeah,” nodded Doyle, he winced and held onto his head, “has anyone got an aspirin?” he gasped, “She’s the woman in my vision.”

“I’ll get some,” Harmony disappeared for a moment before reappearing with two aspirin and a cup of water.

“You’re a sweetheart,” Doyle accepted the pills and water off Harmony and knocked them back.

“Vision? Miss Summers?” Hinted Wesley.

“Yes,” Doyle nodded his head, “oh god, yes.” Doyle took a moment to order his thoughts and then he began to explain. “I saw bodies,” the blood seemed to drain from his face as he spoke, “nothing but bodies, in the streets in buildings everywhere and the only person left standing was her,” again he pointed at Buffy.

Slowly everyone turned to stare at Buffy, she shifted uncomfortably under their gaze.

“Hey,” Buffy said in a small voice, “I’m sure I totally didn’t do it!”

“No you didn’t,” agreed Doyle, “something else did. The body thing was what would happen if you didn’t stop it. Something about,” Doyle screwed up his face with the effort of trying to remember, “a great evil coming from the stars….sorry that’s all I’ve got.”

“Cryptic or what?” Sighed Fred.

“Agreed,” Wesley walked over to a bank of bookshelves and started to study them, “evil from the stars, eh? Very unusual.”

“Yeah so, what is this?” Buffy wanted to know, “Do I need to call in reinforcements.

“You can do that?” Fred sounded impressed.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Wesley turned slowly to survey the room, “I’m sure we have the resources to deal with this ourselves.”

0=0=0=0

After ushering Buffy out of his office and leaving Doyle with his head resting comfortably against Harmony’s breasts, Wesley turned to face Fred. He shook his head in quiet amusement.

“It's a mystery to me,” Wesley sighed and walked over to stand in front of Fred.

“The game commences?” Fred nodded her head before crossing the last few inches separating her from Wesley; she rested her hands on his broad shoulders.

“For the usual fee,” Wesley slipped his hands ‘round Fred’s hips and pulled her close.

“Plus expenses,” Smiling Fred looked up into Wesley’s eyes.

“Confidential information,” murmured Wesley as he returned Fred’s look.

“It's in a diary,” Fred whispered as she stood up on tip-toe to bring her lips closer to Wesley’s.

“This is my investigation,” Wesley’s hands roamed over Fred’s body drawing her even closer to him.

“Not a public inquiry,” Fred gasped as her lips and Wesley’s met in an enthusiastic kiss.

Locked in a passionate embrace they stumbled against a book shelf knocking several volumes of ‘The Encyclopaedia Demonica’ onto the floor. Heedless of the damage they might inflict on the priceless tomes, Fred and Wes lay down on top of the books as they pulled at each others clothing.

0=0=0=0

Buffy found herself back out on the street after her meeting. Wesley and Fred were hitting the books so there was little point in her hanging around until they’d found out more information. Until then, she was going to do some shopping, some weapon shopping that is. Walking along the street looking for a hardware or wilderness store, Buffy didn’t notice the man come up beside her until he spoke.

“Buffy Summers?”

Turning Buffy looked up to see the guy who’d been with Cordelia the previous day.

“The same,” Buffy replied placing her hands on her hips.

Today ‘Charles’ was wearing jeans, t-shirt, sunglasses and expensive loafers, he smiled down at her.

“Charles Gunn,” he introduced himself, “I work with Cordy, she asked that I should find you an’ invite you over for dinner; she wants to say sorry for yesterday.”

“Cordy? Sorry?” Today was certainly a day for surprises.

“Hey, yeah,” Gunn’s grin grew wider as he nodded his head, “Say, lets get off the street an’ talk, coffee?”

“Why not?”

“Here,” Gunn led Buffy across the road to a small diner, “so, you’re the slayer? To hear Cordy go on about it you’re some sorta kick-ass mystical warrior, right?”

“That’s me,” Buffy agreed with a sigh.

“Hell, girl,” Gunn gave a short bark of laughter, “I thought you’d be taller!”

0=0=0=0


	3. Chapter 3

3.

**Fun, Fun, Fun!**

The waitress placed Gunn’s coffee in front of him after placing Buffy’s drink on the table. Gunn looked at Buffy’s double-chocolate-banana shake and shivered at the thought of so much sugar in such a small space. Buffy sucked down the first inch or two of shake through her straw, glancing up she noticed Gunn watching her.

“What?” Buffy grinned self-consciously, “Have I got something on my face?”

“No…” Gunn came back from whatever happy place he’d been visiting, “no…I…look is that good for you?” he pointed at Buffy’s shake.

“Yeah, sure, why?” Buffy looked at her shake.

“Look,” Gunn smiled, “it’s not exactly healthy an’ I thought what with you being all mystical and warrior-like you’d…”

“No!” Buffy laughed quietly, “One of the good things about being the slayer,” she paused to suck up more sugary, chocolate and banana goodness, “I can eat or drink just about anything and not put on an ounce. So,” Buffy studied Gunn for a moment as she stirred her shake with her straw, “you and Cordy, what’s the sitch?”

“Oh, yeah,” Gunn shrugged and sipped his coffee, “I met Cordy a couple o’ years back, she needed some muscle,” again Gunn shrugged, “so… Look in those days muscle was about all I had to offer. Now we own the club together, Cordy’s been good for me, turned my life ‘round.”

“Gee,” Buffy gave a quiet whistle, this didn’t really sound like the Cordelia Chase she knew from Sunnydale. “Club?”

“Yeah,” Gunn pulled his wallet from his jeans, took out a card and slid it across the table to her.

“Caritas?” Buffy’s eyebrows went up, “That’s Latin for ‘mercy’ isn’t it?”

“That’s what Cordy said,” Gunn nodded.

“So,” Buffy sucked up more shake before fixing Gunn with an icy stare, “you and Cordy, are you like, a ‘thing’?”

“A thing?” Gunn frowned.

“Y’know, an item,” Buffy laughed at Gunn’s perplexed expression.

“Oh no!” Gunn shook his head emphatically, “Cordy’s well out of my price range.”

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded her head a she sucked up the last of her shake, “I know what you…”

Buffy was interrupted by the sound of the door being forcefully pushed open, she turned in her seat to see a middle aged guy in a light grey suit come into to the diner. Studying the guy for a moment, she decided he didn’t look so well. He was pale and sweaty looking and Buffy caught a glimpse of what she thought was a hospital bracelet on his wrist. He walked unsteadily up to the counter; it was almost as if he was unused to walking. Ordering food he lurched over to a nearby table and sat down placing a large radio-cassette player on the table next to him.

Dismissing the man form her thoughts Buffy turned her attention back to Gunn; she was just about to ask him what he did, exactly, when the relative quiet of the diner was shattered by extremely loud heavy rock music.

“What the…?” Gunn looked over Buffy’s head at the man, “Hey,” he called, “do y’mind keeping it down?” 

The man ignored him.

“Don’t worry about it,” Buffy placed a restraining hand on Gunn’s arm, “we can continue our talk some place else.”

“No, man,” Gunn frowned, “its inconsiderate jerks like that who really make me pissed. I mean life in the city’s hard enough without jerks like him making it harder.”

“Right,” Buffy agreed, she could see this entire scenario ending violently, “so let the waitresses deal with it.”

The two middle-aged waitresses watched the man in the grey suit apprehensively but didn’t seem inclined to do anything.

“Why should they?” Gunn glared at Buffy, “Why should they have to? People have gotta take responsibility, aren’t you supposed to be a hero or something?”

Buffy wasn’t quite sure how being the slayer and a guy with a too loud radio connected but she didn’t have to. Gunn got up and walked over to the man he reached across the table and switched the radio off.

“Hey, jerk,” Gunn stabbed a finger at the man, “why don’t you let these good people eat in peace?”

There was a smattering of applause from the diner’s customers. Gunn turned away to walk back to Buffy when he was stopped in his tracks. The man had switched his radio back on, only this time it was louder. Gunn turned, strode the couple of steps back to the man, grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and found himself flying through the air to crash into serving counter.

“I see,” Buffy sighed quietly as she stood up, “this is how a guy with a radio is the slayer’s business.”

By now the man in the suit was standing up and had gone over to where Gunn lay dazed on the floor. He lifted Gunn up with one hand and was just about to throw him through a window when Buffy hit him. Suit-guy staggered a little, looked at Buffy (who was now wondering if her double-chocolate-banana shake had sapped her strength some how) he dropped Gunn and punched her. Feeling herself fly across the diner, Buffy couldn’t help thinking this wasn’t natural. Coming to a sudden halt, she slid down the wall to sit on the floor. Shaking her head to clear it of the stars and little blue birds that had suddenly appeared around it; she jumped back to her feet just in time to see Gunn being bounced off the ceiling. Charging to the rescue, Buffy launched a series of attacks that made suit man drop Gunn and forced him back across the diner towards the door. Expecting to see her opponent lying in a bloody heap on the floor Buffy was most surprised when his fist connected with her jaw.

“What the…!?” Buffy staggered away from the guy in the suit, “What are you?”

Suit-guy didn’t bother to answer, he reached over the counter his hand coming back grasping a carving knife. Smiling with a mixture of anticipation and lust he advanced on Buffy intent on cutting her into bloody, screaming pieces. Picking up a stool from in front of the counter, Buffy was just about to brain the guy when he stopped dead in his tracks. Turning at the sound of a sports car in the street, suit-guy dropped his knife and lost all interest in Buffy and Gunn. He strode out of the diner and started to run after the sports car. Dropping the stool, Buffy ran over to help Gunn to his feet.

“Where’d that freight train come from?” Gunn staggered a little as he held his head.

“Yeah,” Buffy looked off in the direction the suit-guy had taken, there was no sign of him now, she looked back at Gunn, “You okay? I mean he hit you with the ceiling pretty hard.”

“I’ll be fine,” shaking his head to clear it, Gunn stood up unassisted for all of five seconds before leaning on Buffy again. “Look, we better be outta here before the cops arrive.”

The diner’s customers were coming out from under their tables where they’d taken refuge, any moment now someone would get it together enough to call the police, if they hadn’t already. Leaving ten dollars on the counter for the coffee and shake, Buffy helped Gunn out of the door and down the street in the opposite direction from the way suit-man had gone.

“What was that guy?” Buffy asked out loud as she helped Gunn into a side road, “He was like, way too strong.”

“Yeah,” agreed Gunn, “stronger than a vamp.”

“Did you say vamp?” Buffy brought them to a halt in the middle of the side street, “As in vampire?”

“Yeah,” Gunn was feeling better and had stopped leaning so heavily on Buffy’s shoulder, “I’ve staked a few bloodsuckers in my time an’ he was no vamp. Musta been some sort of demon.”

“No,” Buffy shook her head slowly, “I didn’t get any demon vibe off him.”

“Demon vibe?” Gunn frowned down at Buffy.

“Yeah, slayers can ‘feel’ demons and stuff,” Buffy looked up into Gunn’s face. “So, you know all about the world of the weird and wacky?”

“Sure do,” Gunn agreed, “been fighting bloodsuckers since I was a kid…they killed my little sister.”

“Sorry,” Buffy replied quietly.

“Look,” Gunn had almost completely recovered now; Buffy was more than a little impressed, “I better get back to the club; Cordy’ll wonder what took me so long. We can talk about this tonight, okay?”

“Sure,” Buffy watched as Gunn made his way down the street and disappeared into an alley, “I’ll look forward to that.”

Wondering what she should do next, Buffy wandered back out onto the street where the diner was. She stood and watched as several police cars passed by, sirens blaring, they were heading in the direction that the suited demon had taken. Taking a couple of steps after the police cars, Buffy brought herself to a halt. Even if she discovered where the demon had gone the area would be swarming with police. Looking across the road towards the building that housed Wesley’s detective agency she considered checking in there.

No, Buffy dismissed the thought, she’d got the strong impression that she wasn’t flavour of the month. Not surprising really, Wesley and herself hadn’t exactly hit it off back in their Sunnydale days. Plus, Wesley probably blamed her for losing his job with the old council. Buffy didn’t want to seem as if she was throwing her weight around and butting in on Wesley’s territory. She needed Wesley ‘on side’ if she was going to set up a slayer organisation here on the west coast. Hassling people every five minutes over demons who probably weren’t anything to do with the present situation wasn’t the way to impress people. Hailing a cab, Buffy decided to go back to her hotel, she was feeling a little battered and sweaty so she decided to have a shower and change before calling Wesley on her mobile.

0=0=0=0

Sitting down heavily on the end of her bed, Buffy let out a long breath; looking down at her hands she noticed they were shaking. Fighting that demon must have affected her more than she thought; her eyes came to rest on the mini-bar. Getting up she crossed the room and opened the door of the little fridge. Her eyes roved over the bottles until she saw what she wanted. Picking up the tiny bottle of vodka she emptied it into her mouth without bothering to pour it into a glass. Signing she started to feel more like her old self again.

Kicking off her shoes, Buffy walked over to the bathroom and switched on the shower. Stripping off quickly as she walked back to the fridge and selected another miniature bottle. Naked and with bottle in hand she went back into the bathroom and stepped into the shower. Standing under the shower she felt the hot water and alcohol start to wash away all her tensions. By the time she’d drunk the second little bottle of vodka and finished her shower she felt much better. Sitting on her bed again wrapped up in towels, Buffy took her cellphone from her bag and started to dial Wesley’s number, as she did so she noticed that her hands didn’t shake any more, she smiled as Harmony answered the phone.

“Wesley?” Buffy had decided it was best to be slightly more formal with Wesley for now.

“Sorry he’s out at the moment,” came another female voice, “it’s Fred, can I help.”

“Yeah that’s fine,” Buffy felt more comfortable talking to the young woman, they didn’t have any history and she sounded like a genuinely nice person; Buffy filled in Fred on her encounter at the diner.

“Oh dear,” Fred replied when Buffy had finished her tale.

“Oh dear?” Buffy repeated noticing the storm clouds of doom gathering on the horizon, “Oh dear is not of the good.”

“Look,” Fred sighed and gave the impression she was reading from a notebook, “this is what we have so far,” Fred took a deep breath. “Jack DeVries died this morning, but another patient went missing at almost the same time, a guy by the name of Miller. He was in hospital with an acute stomach condition, severe gastritis and then his heart finally deteriorated enough for them to schedule a triple bypass.”

“I think I know what you’re going to say next,” Buffy stared out the window as if she could see this Miller guy.

“Yeah,” Fred resigned herself to the inevitability of it all, “he just got up and walked out of the hospital. About twenty minutes later he walked into a music store, beat the store owner to death and stole a couple of hundred dollars from the till and one of those music box things.”

“He musta gone to the diner right after that,” Buffy supplied.

“After leaving you he went on to a Ferrari dealership, killed the owner, a customer and the handyman before driving off in a bright red sports car.” Fred turned the page of her notebook, “After that there’s an unconfirmed report of an old guy in a Ferrari trying to pick up girls on Hollywood Boulevard nothing else since.”

“Sounds like we’ve got some sort of demon hoping from one body to another,” Buffy rubbed her forehead, “where’s Wesley.”

“He’s out trying to chase down some leads with Doyle,” Fred explained, “do you want to speak to him?”

“No…no, don’t bother,” Buffy turned away from the window, “just call me on my cell as soon as you hear anything.”

“Sure,” Buffy could almost see Fred sitting in her office.

“Thanks,” Buffy started to pull fresh clothes out of her closet, “and say thanks to Wesley for me would you? I’m going out to do some demon hunting, see what I can scare up, see you around.”

Buffy hung up and started to dress, she still hadn’t got any weapons and it looked like she was going to need them. Hands and feet just weren’t going to be enough for this monster, she needed something that would do it serious damage. With this type of possession you often had to cause the host so much damage that the demon would be forced to find a new host; unfortunately the host rarely survived which in a lot of cases was a blessing. Being possessed by a demon didn’t do anything for a person’s sanity.

What she needed was something that would cause massive damage quickly, a sword or axe would be perfect. Unfortunately they weren’t the sort of things you could walk around with openly in down town LA; Buffy didn’t like to admit it but a large calibre pistol would probably be her best bet. Her experiences with firearms had not been good having been shot once and nearly killed, but it looked as if she’d have to put her reservations to one side for now. The next question was; where to buy a gun? Spike always seemed to be able to get hold of them easily enough. Maybe if she went to a pawn shop in a not too good area of town? She’d ask the taxi driver or something, someone was bound to know.

By the time she’d finished planning, Buffy was dressed and ready to go. Picking up her bag and checking her purse was still safely tucked away she headed for the door. Her eyes roamed over the room, everything was in order. Turning with a happy smile she headed on out of the room. Perhaps if the hotel bar was open she’d stop for a quick drink before heading off into the wild world of LA.

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

4.

**Good Vibrations.**

Looking out of the window of the cab, Buffy stared up at the front of the club.

“Are you sure we’re at the right place?” she asked the cab driver uncertainly.

“Only joint in LA called Caritas.” the driver turned in his seat to look at her, “and this is it.”

“Oh,” somehow Buffy couldn’t imagine Cordelia having anything to do with a place like this, “oh, well,” she sighed and started to open the taxi’s door, “it must be the place if…”

“Look,” the driver looked at Buffy uncomfortably, “you want for me to wait?”

The driver had been driving Buffy around LA all afternoon as she completed her various tasks. He’d been very helpful and had even found a place she could buy a gun, no questions asked. Buffy got the feeling he thought she was on some sort of revenge mission.

“No thanks,” Buffy climbed from the car, “I’ll be fine,” she smiled, “honest.”

“Yeah, okay,” the cabby pulled the door closed he didn't sound convinced, “look, if you change your mind I’ll be down the street at that coffee shop,” he pointed to indicate the lights of a small café further down the street, “I’ll be there for the next half-hour, okay?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Buffy gave the guy a warm smile, “but it won’t be a problem.”

After paying off her fare and giving the driver a substantial tip, Buffy looked up at the front of the club again. ‘Girls! Girls! Girls!’ proclaimed a sign in flashing neon lights above the entrance. ‘Non-stop Pole Dancing’, read another sign, Buffy got the feeling this didn’t refer to some sort of eastern European folk dancing. Looking up and down the street, she saw a number of similar places and a few bars, the other frontages appeared to be either shops advertising porn of one type or the other or dark. The street’s inhabitants seemed to be mostly male, on the street corner just down from where Buffy stood were a group of women whose profession was probably just as old as Buffy’s.

“Christ, Cordy,” Buffy turned back to stare once more at the bar, “how the mighty have fallen.”

Thinking that she needed to get on, Buffy walked towards the entrance where she was stopped by a heavily built black guy in a smart suit.

“Can I help you, Miss?” he asked politely.

“Maybe,” Buffy gave the guy one of her most dazzling smiles; she could break him in half like a match stick if she needed to, “I’ve come to see Cordelia…Cordelia Chase?”

“The Boss!?” the guy’s eyebrows rose towards his extremely short hair; he spoke rapidly and quietly into a mike on his wrist, after a moment he seemed to receive a reply. “Mr Gunn says for you to go on in, take a seat an’ Miss Chase will be with you shortly.”

Smiling her thanks as the doorman opened the door, Buffy walked into Caritas.

0=0=0=0

The music wasn’t so loud that it turned Buffy’s brain to jelly or made her teeth vibrate, but it was still loud enough to make normal conversation difficult. Finding herself in a large room, she stopped for a moment and took the time to look around. The walls were hung with long glittering curtain-like hangings making it difficult to see where the exits were, or indeed tell if there were doors to other rooms leading from the main room.

At the far end of the room was a stage with a catwalk sticking out like a peninsular into the main part of the room. The room itself was full of tables and chairs, men of all ages sat at the tables cheering on the dancer who was at present gyrating on the catwalk to the obvious approval of her audience. Between the tables walked a number of scantily dressed waitresses (not all of them exactly human) who ferried drinks between the tables and the bar that ran down the right hand side of the room. Walking slowly over to the bar, Buffy sat down on a stool, the barman walked over to her to get her order.

“What can I get you, sweet-cheeks?”

“Vodka-tonic,” sighed Buffy, “heavy on the vodka.”

“Sure thing,” the barman almost looked as if he was going to ask Buffy for her ID, but obviously thought better of it; moments later he returned with her drink.

“Thanks,” Buffy used her fingers to remove all but one ice-cube, “it dilutes the vodka too much,” she explained before taking a sip. “That’s better,” she gasped putting her glass down, “now would you mind telling me, how come this place has a demon barman?”

“Where?” the barman gave Buffy a worried look and stepped away from her.

“You’ve got green skin and red horns,” Buffy waved her charm bracelet at the demon, “with this I can see right through that glamour spell you’ve got working. I also noticed that a lot of the waitresses didn’t exactly evolve from apes. Now spill your guts before I spill them for you.”

“Okay, okay,” the demon held up a placatory hand, “there’ll be no spilling of anything…anyway you can’t hurt me or anyone in here, there’s an anti-violence spell running.”

“You know,” Buffy took another long pull on her drink and placed the empty glass on the counter in front of her, “the witch that gave me this bracelet is one wicked powerful Wicca.” Buffy pushed the empty glass towards the barman indicating he should fill it up again, “want to bet there’s something on here that’ll let me break every bone in your body?”

“You are a feisty little thing, aren’t you?” The demon barman put another drink in front of her, this time it only had one lump of ice in it.

“Better;” Buffy picked up her glass and drank, “it comes with the territory…I’m the slayer and Cordy is an old friend of mine so you better not be working any evil ‘round her.”

“BUFFY!” squealed a familiar voice from behind her; turning Buffy found herself in the warm, busty and expensively perfumed embrace of Cordelia Chase.

“Hey!” Buffy fought free of her excited friend, “Good to see you too, Cordy…did you know that your barman and half of your waitresses are demons?”

“Oh yeah,” Cordelia grinned at Buffy as she held her at arms length, “Lorne’s harmless and a great barman. Demon waitresses are cheap and I gotta say you look like crap!”

“Flew in from England the other day,” Buffy explained, “didn’t get much sleep last night, still a little jet lagged.”

“Come on,” Cordelia grabbed Buffy by the hand, “we can talk in my office.”

As the two young women walked across the club a pale, sweaty looking middle-aged man in a light grey suit stood and watched the club with lust filled eyes. Hefting the heavy holdall he carried, he walked uncertainly over to bar and sat down.

0=0=0=0

“Sit down,” Cordelia gestured to a couple of comfortable chairs and a low table situated in the corner of her tastefully furnished office. “Drink?”

“Vodka-tonic, not too much…” Buffy altered what she was about to say, “...ice.”

Mixing the drinks, Cordelia came over and joined Buffy; she sipped on some concoction that appeared to consist mostly of fruit. 

“So,” Buffy sipped on her own drink resisting the urge to knock it back in one gulp, she gestured to the office, “you’ve done well for yourself.”

“Yeah,” for a moment Cordelia didn’t seem to want to look Buffy in the eye but she soon appeared to recover herself, “it was hard to begin with but…”

Cordelia’s voice trailed away into silence, even Buffy could tell something was wrong, she was just about to ask what was up when Cordelia started to speak again.

“Look you might as well hear it from me,” Cordelia sighed long and hard, “you’ll find out soon enough.”

Buffy braced herself for whatever Cordelia was about to say.

“I’m a hooker!”

“A what!?” Buffy almost spilt her drink.

“You know?” Cordelia replied, “A hooker, but not one of those cheap street walkers you see on the corner of any street ‘round here.” Cordy paused for just a second, “I’m far too pretty to be selling it cheap, that’s why I totally earned six figures working three days a week, y’know?”

“Erm,” Buffy had an urge to knock back her drink in one and start on the bottle, “no!”

“Look this is what happened…you know after graduation and all the problems my parents were having?”

Buffy nodded her head dumbly.

“I sorta came to LA with wild ideas about being an actress or something…” Cordelia paused again and looked away from Buffy, “...just shows you what a stupid, naïve, silly little bitch I was.”

“You were never stupid,” Buffy pointed out, “or little.”

“Yeah, like I was living in this tiny, god awful apartment with huge cockroaches,” oddly Cordelia didn’t sound at all sorry for herself, “I used to go to parties just to get something to eat!”

“Umm…” Buffy was about to say something but Cordelia rolled right over her.

“Then there was this one party,” Cordelia sat forward in her chair and Buffy suddenly realised just how big Cordelia’s breasts really were. “I was hoping to meet this really important producer guy, but by the time I got there he’d already met this other girl and left…which was just as well for me coz he turned out to be a vamp and he ate the girl, like totally sucked her blood?”

“Yeah,” Buffy looked at her empty glass, “I get the idea…do you think I could have another?”

“Yeah,” Cordy pointed over to the drinks cabinet, “help yourself.” 

Buffy did.

“Like I was feeling pretty sorry for myself until this other rich looking guy asked me if I wanted to come back to his place,” Cordelia put down her glass and watched as Buffy sat down again. “well, one thing led to another and in the morning he left me five hundred dollars on the hall table and said there’d be another five hundred for me next week if I wanted to do it again!”

“Gee,” Buffy lifted her glass to her lips, “and did you?”

“Darn right I did!” Cordy grinned flashing perfectly straight, white teeth, “Five hundred dollars was more money than I’d seen in a loooong time. Anyway, by the next week I’d done some market research and got a thousand out of the guy. He also gave me some names of guys who’d be interested in my services if I was discreet, you know what I mean?”

“I think I do,” Buffy replied numbly, still trying to come to terms with Cordelia being a high-class hooker. “isn’t it, like dangerous?”

“That’s why I employed Gunn,” explained Cordy, “at least it was to begin with. Gunn’s a good guy, he has untapped depths.”

“No,” Buffy frowned, “I mean being arrested.”

“See these,” Cordy cupped her enhanced boobs in her hands, “High Court Judge paid for them…funny how there’s always insufficient evidence or something for a conviction.” Cordelia looked decidedly smug, “I also employ an extremely good law firm and accountants.”

“Yeah, I see,” Buffy looked around the office once more, “so do you still, um…hook?”

“Only for my regulars,” Cordelia shifted in her chair, “nowadays I concentrate on the club…I’m opening another one down at Longbeach, soon there’ll be Caritas’s all over!” Cordelia let that sink in for a moment before asking, “So, what brings you to LA?”

“I’m over here to start up a slayer support organisation,” Buffy waved her half full glass in Cordelia’s direction; “I was sorta hoping Wesley could help.”

“Hmmm,” Cordelia gave Buffy a pensive look, “you know he’s got that detective agency of his?”

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded, “he’s sorta helping me with something right…”

Buffy was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

“Sorry Cordy,” Gunn had opened the door and was looking into the office, he gave Buffy a friendly nod, “we’ve got trouble, you better come look.”

“Hell,” Cordelia got up and headed for the door followed by Buffy.

Crossing the main room, Buffy noticed that the music had stopped and how the customers here drifting towards the exit; she also noticed that one or two of the waitresses were crying. Following Cordy and Gunn into the back stage area she found herself in a dressing room, obviously where the dancers changed and rested between acts. On the floor lay the body of a middle-aged guy in a light grey suit, Buffy recognised him almost immediately.

“Crap!” she muttered.

“What happened?” Cordelia demanded.

“Best I can figure,” Gunn began as he looked down at the body, “guy came in here after Brenda had finished her act, Lorne said he’d been drinking steadily at the bar an’ watching Brenda dance.”

“You have strippers called ‘Brenda’!?” Buffy gasped.

“Yeah,” Gunn looked at Buffy and shrugged his shoulders, “why not?” He turned back to Cordelia, “Looks like he followed her in here came on too strong and she musta hit him, maybe he hit his head when he fell. Whatever happened Brenda’s skipped.”

“No,” Buffy was kneeling over the body examining it.

“No?” Cordy and Gunn said together.

“Guy’s name is Miller,” Buffy shook her head slowly from what she could see the guy had run out of blood. “We had a fight with him earlier, you remember him, Gunn?”

“Crap!” Gunn looked down at the body, now Buffy had turned him over he recognised the face, “This is bad!”

“Bad?” Cordelia looked from Gunn to Buffy and back again, “Will someone please tell me what’s so ‘bad’…apart from having a dead body in my club that is.”

“We think this guy was possessed by a demon,” Buffy stood up and dusted off her hands, “it jumps from person to person…we better find this Brenda girl, its probably in her now. Got a picture of her?”

Gunn turned and studied some photographs pinned to the wall; he took one down and passed it to Buffy.

“Crap, crap, crap!” muttered Cordy, “This is all I need,” she turned to Gunn, “call the police…”

“Police can’t help,” Buffy pointed out.

“Yeah, but they can get rid of the body,” Cordy pointed out, “and they might just find Brenda.”

“Good point,” Buffy agreed as Gunn headed out to the main part of the bar.

Moments later he came back, this time followed by a blonde woman in jeans and a short, black leather jacket; she flashed a detective’s badge and pulled her pistol from the holster on her belt as soon as she caught sight of the body on the floor.

“Lockley, LA Vice!” the female detective smiled nastily, “Now what have we got here?”

“Oh!” Cordy cried unconvincingly, “Thank god you’re here officer, Mr Gunn was just going to call nine-one-one.”

“Shut it Chase,” spat Lockley, “you’re not fooling anyone…one of your girls kill a customer?

“Oh, come off it Lockley!” Cordy spat back, “You’ll never make it stick and you know it.”

“Yeah,” Lockley nodded her head as she holstered her weapon, “but while I’m not making it stick I can have you closed down.”

“Charles,” Cordy’s eyes flashed with anger as she turned back to Gunn, “call our lawyers.”

Gunn headed off towards the door again and Buffy tried to sneak out with him, but Detective Lockley noticed her move.

“Not so fast,” Lockley’s arm came up to block Buffy’s escape route, “now who are you? One of Miss Chase’s new recruits?”

“Hey,” Buffy held her hands up in what she hoped was an innocent gesture, “I’m just visiting an old school friend.”

“Visiting an old friend, eh?” Lockley’s hand shot out and grabbed the bag that hung from Buffy’s shoulder, “then you won’t mind me…” Lockley smiled as she pulled the automatic pistol from Buffy’s bag, “...I don’t suppose you’ve got a permit for this?”

“Crap!” Buffy grabbed the gun and pushed Lockley to the floor in one easy motion, the detective tried to regain her feet as Buffy headed for the exit; she called over her shoulder, “I’ll call you later, Cordy!”

Moments later she was out on the street running from the law.

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

5.

**Little Deuce Coupe.**

Stuffing the gun back into her bag as she ran, Buffy quickly out paced Lockley; running around a corner she threw herself against the wall of a building. Breathing a little too heavily than a slayer should, she peeped around the corner and looked back down the street. There appeared to be no sign of the detective, however, Buffy did hear the sound of police sirens approaching from all directions; it was time to go.

Cursing her luck, Buffy walked on down the sidewalk until she was at the next junction where she took a road that would take her even further away from Cordy’s club. Smiling to herself at the thought of Cordy being a hooker, all be it a very expensive and discreet one, she had absolutely no feelings of ‘there but for the grace of god…’. Perhaps some of the stories about Cordy in school had been true after all. Deciding she needed to find a cab and leave the area, Buffy crossed the road towards what appeared to be a parking lot; she noticed one of the cars rocking from side to side on its suspension.

“Oh, gross!” Buffy muttered to herself as she walked closer to the car; suddenly the front passenger’s door was kicked open and the figure of a young attractive woman climbed out onto the tarmac.

Smoothing down her short, red, PVC dress she smiled like she’d just been having a really good time. Until, that is, she saw Buffy approaching and her face set into a hard grimace. Glancing at the woman again Buffy suddenly realised she recognised her; she was the dancer ‘Brenda’ from Cordy’s club.

“Hi,” Buffy called uncertainly as she approached the woman, “you don’t know me, but I’m a friend of Miss Chase, you’re Brenda, right?”

Instead of answering the dancer reached into the car, pulled out a large hold all and produced a very large pistol from its depths.

“CRAP!” Buffy cried as she ducked behind another car as a bullet whistled over her head; it looked like ‘Brenda’ did know who she was.

Forgetting that she had her own gun, Buffy watched from around the front of the car she was using as cover as ‘Brenda’ searched quickly through her hold all and took out an even bigger gun.

“Darn!” Buffy whispered as she scrambled back out of sight, she could hear the woman’s footsteps as they approached.

The woman was about half way to where Buffy hid when she finally remembered that she too was armed. Searching in her bag she pulled out the gun and held it in both hands. Between her slayer instincts and the help the taxi driver had given her, Buffy was quite familiar with the workings of the pistol. Pulling back on the slide she loaded the first round. Jumping up from behind the car she held the pistol in a two hand hold at arms length, aimed and fired. The big Colt .45 automatic bucked in her hands as the large calibre slugs smashed into the one time dancer’s body.

“Christ!” Buffy stopped firing, the pistol’s slide was locked to the rear indicating the magazine was empty, the woman was however still standing, “Die why don't you!?”

The shotgun in Brenda’s hands spoke as she started to demolish Buffy’s cover. Ducking down behind the car, Buffy ejected the spent magazine and frantically searched her shoulder bag for a spare.

“Crap!” Buffy emptied the contents of her bag onto the ground; she could feel the shotgun blasts slam into the car, she could hear glass smash as the windows were blown out. “I’m really gonna have to keep this bag tidier!”

Finding a spare magazine, she slammed it into the butt of the pistol. Preparing herself to pop up again and start shooting once more, Buffy noticed how quiet it had gone; Brenda had stopped firing. Peeping over the hood of the car, Buffy was in time to see ‘Brenda’ pull the body of a dead man from the car she’d been using; jump in and start the engine. Standing up, Buffy was just about to send a fusillade of shots after the rapidly departing car when she heard two police cars pull up behind her.

Turning, as she knelt to collect her things from the surface of the parking lot; she saw a patrol car just behind an unmarked car with a flashing red light on its dashboard. Detective Lockley was climbing out of the driver’s side. Deciding that it was her best chance of catching the demon, Buffy sprinted towards the detective, bag in one hand pistol in the other. Catching Lockley half in, half out of her car, Buffy’s shoulder caught the woman in the stomach knocking all the wind out of her. Not really knowing what else to do, Buffy bundled the winded detective back into the car.

Pushing Lockley into the passenger’s seat, Buffy settled herself behind the wheel. Dropping everything onto the floor, she noticed the engine was still running, putting the car into gear, she floored the accelerator. Nothing happened, taking her foot off the gas, she took the hand break off and again mashed down on the gas peddle. This time the car shot off down the street eliciting a scream from both herself and Lockley as the gee-forces hit and pushed them back into their seats. Buffy felt the cold metal of Lockley’s gun pressed against her head just behind her ear as she struggled to control the car.

“Stop the car,” Lockley ordered from between clenched teeth, “stop the car right now!”

“We’re doing eighty in a built-up zone,” Buffy glanced around at Lockley, “I really don’t think you’re gonna shoot me right now.”

“Try me,” Lockley replied coldly, as she pulled the pistol’s hammer back with her thumb.

“Okay,” Buffy replied brightly as she stood on the breaks.

Sliding off her seat, Lockley hit the dashboard with her ribs the force of the collision making her drop her gun. Again Buffy stood on the gas peddle and the car continued its hi-speed career along the street. Her arms appeared to be going in all directions as Buffy hauled on the wheel and the car screeched around a corner.

“You okay?” Buffy asked as Lockley was thrown back into her seat, the detective had lost her gun and was nursing her rib-cage and had a fast developing bruise on her forehead.

“Yeah,” she groaned, “I’ll live, no thanks to you…you know you’re in big trouble don’t you? Kidnapping a cop an’all.”

“Hey look...” the car swerved from one side of the road to the other as Buffy turned to look at the detective.

“EYES ON ROAD!” Lockley screamed as the car headed towards a shop front.

“Sorry!” Buffy frowned as she struggled to regain control of the car, “Look this was the best chance I had of catching our suspect.”

“ _Our_ suspect?” Lockley had retrieved her gun from the floor, she considered shooting Buffy but decided against it; the crash would kill her just as surely as if she put the gun in her own mouth and pulled the trigger.

“Yeah,” Buffy tried to think up a believable story to explain what was going on here, “look that Brenda-chick is in that car up ahead,” Buffy indicated the tail lights of a car ahead of them, “she’s got to be stopped before she can kill anyone else.”

“Brenda?” Lockley looked at Buffy as if she was insane.

“Yeah the zoned out stripper from the strip-joint,” Buffy tried to explain. “She killed the guy at the club, looks like she screwed that other guy in the parking lot to death. Tried to kill me…who knows what she’ll do next.”

“Why should you care?” Lockley was now taking more interest in the car ahead of them than in Buffy.

“It’s my job to care,” Buffy tried to coax more speed out of the car.

“Who are you?” Lockley wanted to know.

“Can’t say,” Buffy gave Lockley a quick grin and nearly drove them into a telephone kiosk.

“EYES! EYES!” screamed Lockley as Buffy got the car back under control; Lockley took a deep breath and tried to control her racing heart, “You’re a Fed aren’t you?”

“Can’t say,” Buffy smiled to herself.

“That’s all I fucking need,” Lockley shook her head in disgust, “a fucking Fed who looks like a cheerleader.” Sitting for a moment and thinking, Lockley decided she couldn’t fight city hall so she might as well work with it. “Okay, look,” Lockley pointed to a junction ahead of them, “we’ll never catch her in this load of junk. Hang a left here…”

The car almost went up on two wheels as Buffy turned the wheel too sharply and they slid around the corner on screaming tyres that rivalled the scream coming from Lockley’s mouth.

“Where the hell did you learn to drive…?” Lockley wanted to know.

“It’s Buffy…”

“What?”

“My name’s Buffy,” Buffy explained, “and to be honest I never really learnt to drive,” she shrugged her shoulders, “sorry.”

“Great!” Lockley looked skywards hoping for heavenly intervention, as usual none was forthcoming. “Trapped in a car with a Fed who can’t drive and who not only looks like a cheerleader but has a cheerleader’s name!” Lockley paused for breath, “Kate, by the way.”

“What?” Buffy turned sharp right to avoid a truck as they came out onto a main street.

“I said my name’s Kate!” Lockley pointed, “There!” Sure enough they’d come out on a main street right behind the demon’s car.

“Try to shoot the tyres out!” Buffy called as she struggled with the wheel and followed an erratic course down the street behind the demon.

Leaning out of the window, Kate aimed at the car in front; she fired off half a dozen rounds none of which hit their intended target.

“Here,” Buffy searched around on the floor until her fingers found her own gun, “let me try, you drive!”

Grabbing hold of the wheel, Kate watched in horror as Buffy half climbed out of the driver’s window aimed her big automatic at the car in front and fired. Kate momentarily lost any feelings of impending death as Buffy’s second round hit the fugitive’s car and exploded one of its rear tyres. The stripper’s car swerved from side to side before veering across the road to crash into the display window of a large shop. Buffy and Kate overshot the crash site as Buffy climbed back into the car and took control (if you could call it that) of the car once more. Standing on the breaks, she brought the car to a screaming halt, once again almost hurling Kate through the windscreen.

Pushing open the door, Kate collapsed onto the roadway, she looked back at Buffy, “Are you trying to kill me or something? No!” she’d had second thoughts, “Don’t tell me I don’t want to know.”

“Sorry,” Buffy searched around in her bag for spare magazines, coming up with a couple she pushed them into her jeans’ pocket, “but like I say I never really learnt to drive.”

Rolling her eyes in disgust, Kate indicated the building with the car sticking out from the front display window.

“You want to wait for back up?”

“Nah,” Buffy shook her head, “we can’t afford to let her get away.”

“Hoped you’d say that,” Kate grinned at Buffy as they both stood up and trotted across the road towards the building.

Taking cover behind the front wall of the shop, Kate glanced into the brightly lit display window.

“Eww,” she shuddered.

“What’s up?” Buffy moved so she could cover the other side of the car; the door was open and the car was empty.

“Mannequins,” Kate explained, “they give me the wig.”

“Hey!” Buffy smiled at Kate as she popped up from behind the car, “Wee have something in common, I feel the same way about ventriloquist’s dummies!”

“Yeah, right,” Kate rolled her eyes once more, “look, cover me, I’m going in.”

“No,” Buffy called as Kate began to move; she came to a halt and looked questioningly at Buffy, “I better go first.”

“Okay,” Kate sighed, “I'll cover you.” 

“I'd be safer if you didn't,” Buffy explained.

“Fine,” Kate stood up straight and let her gun drop to her side, “I won't cover you.”

“Alright,” Buffy could see she’d some how upset the cop, “cover me.” 

“Do you want me to fucking cover you or not?” Kate demanded angrily.

“I need you to cover me,” Buffy relented. 

“Fine.” Kate crouched down again and aimed her pistol into the shop’s interior, “I'll cover you.” 

“Thanks,” Buffy shrugged to herself and moved through the wreckage of the display window and into the factory beyond.

0=0=0=0

The factory itself was dimly lit and full of half finished shop dummies, Buffy started to think Kate had a point about the things giving her the wig. Half seen pieces of machinery loomed out of the darkness to cast weird, misshapen shadows across the floor and walls.

“Where…” began Kate, she was cut off when a figure stepped into view on a gantry above them.

“THERE!” Buffy cried as she raised her gun.

The figure on the gantry fired, a booming explosion filled the air as the shotgun blasts blew away dummy after dummy. Buffy and Kate took shelter behind a large concrete pillar and waited for the shooter to run out of shells. As soon as the firing slackened they sprang from their hiding place and sent shot after shot up at the figure on the gantry.

Looking on in horror as she watched her and Buffy’s rounds strike home, Kate wondered if the woman above them would ever die; she was just standing there letting them shoot her! Blood squirted from wounds as each bullet hit home but nothing seemed to affect the woman. Kate had seen the effects of PCP before but this was nothing like that. Firing off the last round in her magazine, Kate saw the stripper bend at the waist. For a moment she thought they’d finally killed her, but she was mistaken. The woman was just picking up another weapon.

“WHY WON’T SHE DIE!?” Kate yelled over the sound of automatic fire from above; she slipped a fresh magazine into her gun

“We have to damage her enough to force it outta her!”

“What!?”

Suddenly the firing stopped, looking around the pillar Kate was just in time to see the stripper disappear around a corner.

“THE ROOF!” Buffy called as she headed for the stairs leading up to the roof.

0=0=0=0

Bursting out onto the roof, Buffy tried to look in all directions at the same time, realising that this approach was getting her nowhere she calmed down and took a deep breath; my god, she thought, she could use a drink to steady herself just about now.

“See anything?” Kate asked from beside her.

“No,” Buffy shook her head, “look, you’d better stay here its too dangerous.”

“Hey!” Kate gave Buffy a sharp look, “Anywhere you go I go, a collar like this could get me into homicide.”

“Okay,” Buffy shrugged, “but keep behind me.”

Keeping low they ran across the roof to the perimeter wall.

“Look we’ll never cover everything if we stick together like this,” Kate pointed out after a moments reflection. “Follow the edge of the roof that way and I’ll go this.”

Before Buffy could explain what a really bad idea it was, Kate had scuttled off into the night. Sighing, Buffy headed off in the opposite direction. Perhaps Kate was right, they had to stop this thing before it found another body to inhabit. They had to force it out into the open then perhaps she could kill it. Buffy paused as a thought struck her; what if it was incorporeal and material weapons couldn’t hurt it? Damn, she cursed silently, what if she needed magic?

Standing up, Buffy checked another fire escape, like the others she’d looked down there was no sign of the stripper. Something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. Whirling around and bringing up her gun, Buffy caught site of the demon standing over the unconscious body of Kate Lockley. 

Firing without even thinking, Buffy saw her bullet strike home high on the stripper’s body. She staggered away from Lockley a couple of half steps then brought her own weapon up and fired a burst in Buffy’s direction. Bullets ripped the air all around Buffy as she dived for cover. Rolling up onto her knee, Buffy aimed and fired again, once more the stripper staggered but this time she dropped her gun. Seizing her chance, Buffy stood up and advanced on the demon firing steadily as she did so.

Coming to the end of one magazine, Buffy slipped her final magazine into her gun and kept firing. The demon stripper staggered at each impact, blood oozed from multiple wounds as she looked desperately one way and another as if seeking an escape route. Standing only a few yards away from the demon, Buffy stopped firing (she only had a couple of rounds left).

“Give it up,” Buffy bluffed, “you lost you might as well come outta there.”

“I’m not coming out,” replied the demon in a deep voice that didn’t match its body.

Before Buffy could do anything the demon turned and leapt up onto the low wall surrounding the roof. Casting a last look at Buffy over its shoulder it jumped.

0=0=0=0


	6. Chapter 6

6.

**Break Away.**

“Did you get her?” Kate stumbled up behind Buffy; she rubbed the back of her neck as she looked around for the perp, “Where’d she go?”

“She jumped,” Buffy gestured towards the edge of the roof.

“She what!?” Kate placed her hands on the wall that ran around the roof and looked down into the street; sure enough there lay the stripper’s body, “Did she say anything?”

“Before she jumped?” Buffy started to walk briskly towards the nearest fire escape.

“Yeah,” Kate tagged along behind Buffy seemingly recovered from being hit by the stripper.

“‘I won’t come out’,” Buffy climbed over the wall and started down the metal ladder leading to the street below.

“You what!?” Kate followed Buffy down the ladder.

“Yeah I know,” Buffy sighed dramatically as she climbed, “zoned out strippers say the weirdest things.”

Stepping off the ladder, Buffy started to trot to where the body lay, it should be just around the corner, she was called back by Kate.

“Hey!” the detective cried, “Did you call it in?”

“Umm no,” Buffy paused to look back at Kate, “you better do that now.” Without Kate around Buffy’d be able to deal with any ‘fall-out’ without having to answer embarrassing questions.

“Yeah, right,” Kate hesitated, “look, you be careful, right?” 

“Hey,” Buffy grinned, touched by the concern in Kate’s voice, “how much trouble can a dead stripper be?”

“Yeah, right,” Kate waved and ran off in the direction of the front of the building.

“Right,” Buffy said quietly to herself as she walked towards where the body lay, “dead stripper, hopefully dead demon…what could be safer? Gods I need a drink.”

Coming around the corner Buffy came to a sudden halt.

“What the!?” Buffy stared at Wesley and Fred as they crouched over the body, “Where the hell did you two spring from?”

“We’ve been tracking you,” announced Wesley as he stood up after examining the body.

“Magically,” Fred smiled happily at Buffy, “Wes had this magic do-dad thing…it tracks slayers.”

“Yeah, great,” Buffy joined the little group standing over the body; she glanced at Fred, “Cool outfit, Fred.”

“Thanks,” Fred blushed a little; she was wearing a blue and maroon leather cat-suit affair with showed off her surprisingly good figure.

“If you ladies have quite finished with the fashion show?” Wesley asked dryly, “Perhaps we can get on with the task in hand.”

“He’s so masterful,” sighed Fred looking adoringly at Wesley.

“Yeah if you say so,” Buffy gave Fred a puzzled look before turning her attention back to Wesley, “Well?”

“As far as I can tell,” Wesley gestured towards the body, “the demon’s gone.”

“What!?” Buffy looked around searching for whatever the demon might have moved into, “Was there anyone around when you arrived?”

“Not a soul,” Fred supplied.

“When did you get here?” Buffy looked suspiciously from Fred to Wesley.

“Don’t worry,” Wesley reassured her, “we only got here a few seconds before you did, the demon was already gone.”

“Damn it!” Buffy turned away from the two private detectives, “Crap!” she stamped her foot in frustration, “We need to find this thing before it causes anymore murder and mayhem.”

“I quite agree,” Wesley rubbed his chin as he gazed down at the body, “we have no idea what form the demon has taken, we don’t even know what sort of demon it is or if we can actually kill it.”

“Right,” Buffy was thinking hard, if only she could get a drink she’d be able to… “Sirens!”

“What?” Wesley looked around in panic.

“Look,” Buffy put her hand to her forehead only then realising she still had her pistol in her grasp, “you two better get out of here. Try and get the skinny on this demon, I’ll call in later,” Buffy could hear the sound of approaching footsteps, probably Kate returning, “now get going.”

Watching Fred and Wesley disappear into the night, Buffy turned to find Kate Lockley pointing her pistol at her.

“Drop the gun, Buffy,” Kate ordered.

“Oh, darn!” Buffy carefully laid her pistol on the floor before standing up with her hands in the air.

“Turn ‘round,” still keeping her pistol pointing at Buffy, Kate pulled out her cuffs and advanced on her. “Who are you?” Buffy felt the metal bracelets lock around her wrists, “For real…you’re not a Fed,” by now Buffy’s arms were securely cuffed behind her back.

“Never said I was,” Buffy turned around to look at Kate who was just about to say some thing. “If you remember,” Buffy smiled sadly, “I never actually said I was a Fed, I sorta let you assume.”

“Yeah, okay,” Kate admitted, the sirens had stopped now and were replaced by a multitude of running feet, “but you’re up to something and I’m gonna find out what it is.”

“Let me go,” Buffy looked deeply into Kate’s eyes, “it’s still out there, it’ll kill again and again I’ve got to stop it.”

“Look,” Kate nodded down at the stripper, “she’s dead, case closed and I’m on my way outta vice.”

Sighing sadly, Buffy started to pull on the cuffs. It was a pity, she actually liked Kate, but she had to go and track down the demon before it killed again. Just as she started to feel the metal of the cuffs start to stretch, Buffy saw several heavily armed Swat officers arrive on the scene. Darn-it, Buffy cursed inwardly, any escape attempts would have to wait until later.

0=0=0=0

Sitting across the desk from Detective Lockley, Buffy rubbed at the red marks on her wrists where the cuffs had been. She’d been arrested for impersonating a federal officer and kidnapping a police detective. Oddly the cops who’d taken her away had treated her pretty decently, obviously someone had told them about what had happened in the factory. However, that had not stopped them from locking her in a cell, but at least it was one that wasn’t overlooked by any of the other cells and their occupants.

After an hour or so she’d been taken up to a large office and placed in a chair facing Kate who’d asked for the cuffs to be removed. Buffy watched the detective as she leafed through the files on her desk, looking up she gazed silently into Buffy eyes.

“Look,” she said, “I persuaded my captain to let me question you before the guys from homicide took you away.”

“Gee thanks,” Buffy drummed her fingers on the desk for a moment; it would be so easy just to get up and walk out of this place, but she didn’t. Her job would be a thousand times more difficult with the police after her.

“Hey, look,” Kate shook her head, “chances are you won’t be charged with murder…at that point you were actually helping me out, but the other stuff…” Kate shook her head sadly. “But if you tell me what’s actually going on…” Kate let the words hang there as she looked hopefully at Buffy.

“You wouldn’t believe me,” Buffy replied robotically.

“Okay, have it your way,” Kate decided to try a different tack, “You know what bothers me about these three, DeVries, Miller and that stripper…Brenda?”

“Let me guess,” Buffy sighed, “none of them had a criminal record. They all led normal lives until they started killing people, am I right?”

“Yeah,” Kate nodded her head and leaned across the table towards Buffy, “why would that Miller guy kill for a lousy hundred bucks and a radio? Why would that Brenda girl suddenly take it into her head to take on the police with automatic weapons, and that stuff DeVries did…Jeez!”

“Because he likes it,” Buffy explained; it seemed the most logical answer to her, this was just a demon on a crush, kill, destroy joyride with the added fun of taking over people’s bodies.

“He?” Kate frowned at Buffy.

“He sees something he wants,” Buffy explained urgently, “he steals it. If someone gets in his way, he kills them; and right now, he's hiding out in your city and you’ve got the only person who can stop him locked up in a cell.”

“So what are you saying?” Kate grinned at Buffy, “That there’s some kind of monster jumping from body to body on some sorta one monster crime wave?”

“Yeah,” Buffy sighed heavily perhaps it was time to leave, “told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Okay,” Kate dry scrubbed her face, “so how do we kill him…it?”

“What!?” Buffy looked disbelievingly at Kate, “You believe me!”

“Hey,” Kate shrugged, “I’m not stupid, I’ve seen some pretty weird shit go down in this town.”

Buffy’s mouth dropped open in surprise.

“Come on,” Kate grinned, “when you put an entire clip into a guy and he still doesn’t go down, or some perp gets up offa the slab and walks on out of the morgue. Well,” Kate shrugged, “you’d have to be a moron not to admit there was something bizarre going on. So, how do we find this guy…monster, whatever?”

“You really believe me?” Buffy felt like she’d been kicked in the stomach, her world had just received a hard battering; it was a matter of faith with the slayer that the authorities wouldn’t know a monster if it jumped up and bit them.

“Here,” Kate pulled the collar of her blouse away from her neck to reveal a bite mark, “female vamp did that.”

Standing up, Buffy leaned across the table and examined the marks, they were real and they were from a vampire.

“How did you get away?” Buffy wanted to know.

“I didn’t,” Kate rearranged her collar to hide the scar, “I don’t think the vampire had her heart in it she only took a little blood…hey I was still in hospital for a couple of days getting transfusions, but she didn’t kill me.”

“Wow,” Buffy breathed quietly, “you were lucky.”

“So how do we kill this thing?” once again Kate was all cop.

“I don’t know,” Buffy shook her head slowly, “but I have people looking into it.”

“You mean Wyndam-Pryce and his merry crew?” Kate almost laughed at the look of surprise on Buffy’s face.

“Is there anything you don’t know?” Buffy gasped.

“Hey look,” Kate shrugged, “being bitten by a vampire concentrates the mind and look…I’m a detective, I find stuff out that’s what I do. So, how do we kill it?”

“I don’t think we can,” Buffy noted the look of confusion on Kate’s face.

“But we shot the stripper, she musta had enough lead in her to sink a battleship,” Kate pointed out.

“But it didn’t kill her,” Buffy frowned this was hard to explain particularly when she didn’t understand it herself, “or it killed the host or whatever, but the demon was still alive.”

“So let me get this straight,” Kate nodded her head as she ordered her thoughts, “we can kill the host but not the thing inside?”

“That’s right,” Buffy agreed, “if we damage the host badly enough it forces the demon…”

“Please,” Kate held up her hand to stop Buffy in her tracks, “please don’t say demon, say monster or something.”

“Yeah, okay,” Buffy took a breath, “anyway, it forces the de…monster out of the host and into someone else. I’m betting it can get into about anything that’s alive.”

“Right,” Kate let out a long breath, “and we’ve lost it?”

“Yeah,” Buffy agreed sadly, “once it got out of the stripper I don’t know where it went.”

“Okay,” Kate stood up, “I’m gonna have to put you back into your cell,” Buffy started to protest but was cut off by Kate. “It’s only so I can persuade my Captain to cut you loose, it’d help if you had a lawyer.”

“Sorry not in this country,” Buffy let herself be led by the arm back towards the cells, “Oh my friend Cordy said she had good lawyers you could call her, maybe she’d help.”

“Cordelia Chase?” Kate gave Buffy a sideways look, “You’re really friends with Ms Chase?” Buffy nodded her head noting the irony in Kate’s voice, “Yeah, she has lawyers, the best most heartless lawyers in town…ever heard of Wolfram and Hart?”

0=0=0=0

The two women had to pass through the booking hall on their way down to the cells. Buffy fought an internal battle with herself; should she take Lockley at her word or was this all a trick? Was Lockley only pretending to believe her, or would she find herself in a mental institution? The bite mark on Lockley’s neck would indicate that the detective believed her, so she’d go along with Lockley’s plan, for now. As they walked along the corridor towards the cell, Buffy caught sight of, or maybe that should have been smelt, a uniform cop leading a tramp or someone towards the cell block.

“Hey,” Lockley called, “Evens, what y’got there? Hope you’re not gonna put it near my prisoner or she’ll sue us for police brutality.”

“Ha!” Laughed the uniformed cop as he glanced over his shoulder at Kate, “Frightened you won’t get a con…!”

The tramp who had been bent over and staggering from side to side as the uni led him away suddenly stood up straight. He pushed the cop to one side while at the same time grabbing his gun. In one fluid motion the ‘tramp’ turned and brought the gun up to point it at Buffy. 

Reacting instinctively, Kate pushed Buffy towards the wall while she went for her own gun. The demon fired and Buffy felt the wind of the bullet’s passing against her cheek. Kate fired off three quick shots two of which hit the demon squarely in the chest; they didn’t even slow him down.

“COME ON!” Buffy climbed to her feet and grabbed hold of Kate, “RUN!”

“But,” Kate was split between leaving a fellow cop in danger and doing what she knew to be the sensible thing; the demon made up her mind for her by shooting the uni before turning back to shoot at her and Buffy.

Firing wildly behind her, Kate let Buffy drag her down the corridor and around a corner. police officers were already heading towards the firing from all over the station.

“They don’t stand a chance do they?” Kate slipped a fresh magazine into her pistol.

“No,” Buffy shook her head, “but they might slow it down.”

“What do we do?” Kate flinched at the sound of all the gunfire coming from around the corner.

“We’ve got to keep in contact with it,” Buffy explained urgently, “we can’t let it take another host.” Buffy thought hard for a moment, “Look, it seems to be after me I’ll get it to chase me somewhere not so public then maybe we can capture it or kill it…where’s my gun?”

“Evidence room,” Kate rationalised that Buffy was probably right, anyway it would get the thing out of the station, “follow me.”

Leading Buffy to the evidence room and after a short argument, Kate got the officer in charge to hand over Buffy’s .45.

“What now?” Kate asked as she helped Buffy thumb rounds into her spare magazines.

“We go kick dem…sorry,” Buffy grinned and pulled back the slide on her Colt, “monster butt.”

Running towards the sound of the firing they came across a detective standing outside a copier room covering the door with his weapon.

“Flynn?” Called Kate as they ran over to join the nervous looking man.

“He’s in there,” Flynn gestured towards the door.

Exchanging a glance, both women had the same thought; this was too easy. Bursting into the room they found the tramp lying on the floor, Buffy nudged him with the toe of her shoe.

“He’s dead!”

“Was there anyone else here,” Lockley turned and pointed her gun at Flynn, perhaps the demon was in him.

“Hey! KATE!” the detective tried to back away from Lockley.

“Answer her!” Buffy snarled as Flynn looked down the cavernous muzzle of Buffy’s pistol.

“Y-yeah,” stammered a terrified Detective Flynn, “Willis was in there, he said he was going to get a medic and I was to wait here.”

“Fuck!” snapped Buffy, “It’s got away again,” she turned to look at Kate noticing how the blood seemed to have drained from her face. “You okay?” Buffy asked gently, “You know this Willis guy?”

“Yeah,” Kate’s gun hand fell to her side as she leaned against the way for support, “you could say that.”

“Oh god I’m sorry,” Buffy realised why Kate was acting all screwy, “but we’ve…”

“I know,” Kate pushed herself away from the wall and looked at Buffy, “he’s dead right?” Buffy nodded her head, “Okay,” Kate turned to look at a thoroughly frightened and confused Flynn. “have the Captain put out an APB on Willis, he’s armed and extremely dangerous…which way did he go?”

Pointing, Flynn watched as the two women ran off in pursuit, he started to wonder if he was really suited for a career in the police department.

0=0=0=0


	7. Chapter 7

7.

**Do It Again.**

“They probably think we’re gay or something,” Buffy stood by the window of her hotel room starring out at the city below.

“What?” Kate Lockley lifted her head from the pillow of the spare bed and watched Buffy for a moment.

“The hotel staff,” Buffy had brought Kate back to her hotel room for a few hours rest after they’d spent several fruitless hours looking for Detective Willis.

“Let ‘em,” Kate let her head fall back onto the pillow as she stared up at the ceiling.

“You know you’ll have to shoot him,” Buffy said quietly after a moment, “Jack, I mean; you’ll have to try to kill him…you think you can deal?”

Detective Jack Willis and Kate had been in a relationship for a couple of years, now he’d been possessed by a demon and they were going to have to try and kill him.

“Yeah, I’ll manage,” Kate replied softly.

“It’s not easy y’know,” Buffy turned away from the window to look at Kate, “I had to kill my boyfriend once…well twice really, but who’s counting?”

“What happened?” Kate rolled over and sat up on the edge of the bed, she watched Buffy as she stood framed against the early morning light.

“Oh, same old story,” Buffy sighed, “you know? We had sex, he turned evil, started killing people then he tried to destroy the world…”

“What did you do?” Kate wondered about just what sort of life this young woman had had, it probably explained the drinking.

“What any normal girl would do,” a smile quirked around Buffy’s lips, “I rammed a sword through his heart and pushed him into a vortex that took him on a one-way trip to hell.”

“Harsh,” Kate tried to lighten the mood a little, “I’d have just cut up all his clothes.”

“Nah,” Buffy shook her head, “this was really serious, y’know? Anyway it didn’t take.”

“It didn’t?” Kate looked at Buffy in surprise.

“Yeah,” Buffy turned back to the window so Kate wouldn’t see her brush the tears from her eyes, “three months later he was back, worse than ever and I had to kill him all over again…he won’t be coming back again.”

“Sorry,” Kate noticed Buffy’s hand go to her face and guessed the reason why.

“Don’t be,” Buffy pulled back her shoulders and took a deep breath, “I was a stupid, silly teenager back then with an awful taste in men,” Buffy gave a brittle laugh. “Remind me to tell you about the guy who ran off to fight demons in Central America rather than stay home with me.”

“Christ,” Kate muttered quietly; she’d thought her own dating history was dire but Buffy’s sounded a hundred times worse.

No wonder she looked such a wreck, Kate idly wondered if Buffy’s friends had noticed how she seemed to be on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Probably not, she’d seen it before with cops who’d burnt out. Afterwards you’d remember seeing all the danger signals but by then it was too late. By the looks of things Buffy was turning to drink for solace, the first thing she’d done on entering the room last night was head for the mini-bar. Kate promised herself that she’d try and talk to Buffy’s people, try to get her some help.

“Look,” Buffy turned away from the window and walked over to the table where her cellphone lay, “I’m gonna check in with some people that are helping out, they might have some news, what time is it?”

“About eight-thirty,” Kate glanced at her watch, “you going to call Wyndam-Pryce? The department sometimes sends people and cases Wyndam-Pryce’s way,” Kate laughed, “you know the ones that the police aren’t really equipped to deal with?”

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded as she dialled; listening Buffy waited for the phone to be answered.

“Wyndam-Pryce agency,” said a cheerful female voice, “we help the hopeless.”

“Fred?” this time Buffy recognised the voice.

“Buffy!” Fred sounded genuinely pleased to hear from her, “I’m so glad you called.”

“Have you got any info for me?” Buffy cut straight to the chase.

“Wes an’ I’ve been up nearly all night,” explained Fred, “we’ve searched through all the books on demons who do this kinda thing, but we’ve still not been able to pin it down to any particular demon.”

“Crap,” Buffy muttered, “What about ways to kill it?”

“Wes is out trying to find something right now,” Fred paused for a moment, “I’m sorry Buffy but we’re not being much help.”

“Don’t worry,” Buffy really wished Giles and Willow were doing the research, “I’m sure you’re doing what you can. Until then any suggestions how I should kill this thing.”

“Yeah, right,” Buffy heard Fred shift the phone to a more comfortable position, “Wes said that you were doing the right thing forcing it out of its host. Once it’s out in the open he said you should try burning it or failing that chopping it up into little bits with a sword or something.”

“Right,” Buffy signed, “okay, I’ll try that and thanks.”

“I’m sorry we couldn’t find anything more useful,” Fred sounded very apologetic, “I’ll get back to you if we find out anything more.”

“No,” Buffy smiled down the phone, “you’ve been a big help, hope to hear from you soonest…bye.”

“Bye,” called Fred, “an’ good luck.”

“Anything?” Kate looked hopefully at Buffy.

“Nothing much,” Buffy put down her phone and picked up her Colt, “just shoot it full of holes ‘til it comes out, then we barbecue it or chop it up.”

“Yeah great,” following Buffy’s example, Kate checked on her own weapon, “but first we’ve got to find it.”

“Yeah,” agreed Buffy as she started to reload magazines, “if you were a demon where would you go?”

“Well,” Kate thought for a moment, “we’ve lost track of him, so he must be hiding up somewhere.”

“Maybe it’s got a plan?” Buffy put down one full magazine and started filling another.

“So,” Kate looked in disgust at her 9mm pistol and decided she needed a bigger gun; she had just the thing in the trunk of her car. “So, where would I go? What do I want?”

“It takes what it wants,” mused Buffy, “and demons usually want power…this one’s just been playing with us I think. Y’know testing us, seeing if we can stop it…”

“Senator Holt!” Kate cried suddenly.

“Where?,” Buffy looked around in surprise, “Who?”

“Holt,” Kate explained, “He’s in the city today, rumour has it he’s announcing his intention to run for President…”

“And what more power would a demon want?” A predatory grin slowly spread across Buffy’s face. “Where? When?”

“Not sure,” Kate pulled her own cell from her jacket, “but I know a man who'd know.”

0=0=0=0

“The Hollywood Roosevelt,” Kate raised her voice to be heard over the noise of the engine and siren.

“What?” Buffy hung on for grim life as Kate threw her car left and right as they dodged between the traffic.

“The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel,” Kate explained, “it’s where Holt is giving a major news conference today. If he’s gonna announce his candidature for the Presidency it’ll be there.”

“So you think the Willis-monster,” Buffy remembered to say ‘monster’ instead of demon, “will try to jump into Holt there?”

“Good as guess as any,” Kate admitted, “and Buffy,” Kate glanced over at her companion, “Jack Willis is dead right?”

“Yeah, right,” Buffy agreed.

“He was a decent guy and a good cop,” Kate swung the car around a truck as she accelerated down the street, “that thing that looks like him is just a monster, right?”

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded her head seeing Kate’s point, “just a monster.”

“Thanks,” Kate drove them on towards the hotel.

0=0=0=0

Squealing to a halt outside the Hollywood Roosevelt, Kate climbed out of the car followed almost immediately by Buffy.

“Stay close to me,” she ordered as she took a long object wrapped in a jacket from off the back seat, “if anyone says anything to you just say, ‘LAPD’ like you mean it and point at me, okay?”

Nodding her head and following Kate towards the hotel’s main entrance, Buffy watched as two, so obviously Federal Agent type guys moved to intercept them.

“Lockley, LAPD!” Kate flashed her badge at the two Feds; she pulled a photo from under her jacket and thrust it under the agent’s noses before they could properly challenge her. “Have you seen this man?” Kate demanded. “He probably showed an LAPD badge and claimed to be on the security detail.”

“Yeah,” the taller of the two Feds replied, “he arrived about five minutes ago, what’s going on?”

“He’s a terrorist!” called Kate as she continued to bull her way into the hotel and passed the Feds, “Hard core, deep cover, we’ve just found out,” Kate told the shocked agents, “he’s going to kill the Senator!”

The lead agent immediately started talking urgently up the sleeve of his jacket. Buffy was impressed; Kate was good, if she’d told her that Giles was a demon then she’d have believed her…at least for a while.

“Stay close,” Kate dropped the spare jacket to reveal a pump action shotgun; she jacked a round into the breach, “better get ready.”

Pulling the Colt from the back of her jeans, Buffy followed Kate’s example and pulled back the slide loading the first round. Looking around the lobby where they now stood, Buffy noted all the people looking at her and Kate with frightened expressions on their faces.

“LAPD!” Kate yelled as loudly as she could, “There’s a terrorist alert,” she explained to the worried civilians, “for your own safety leave the building now!”

This started a mini-stampede for the door, coincidentally preventing the two Feds on the door following Buffy and Kate into the building. A burst of automatic fire from deeper in the building hurried the people on towards the street.

“Come on!” Kate headed towards the sound of firing as she clutched the shotgun across her chest.

0=0=0=0

Turning a corner into a long wide corridor, Buffy saw the body of a man lying in a pool of blood on the floor. Kate ran over and knelt down next to him checking for a pulse. Buffy could tell the guy was dead just by looking at him so she busied herself pushing the last few frightened hotel guests towards the exit. After rousting out the last guest from behind the potted palms and pieces of furniture, Buffy turned to face Kate.

“Dead,” Kate held something out to Buffy, “clip it on your belt like mine.”

Buffy took the dead detective’s badge and clipped it on her belt as instructed.

“Hopefully it’ll stop the Feds and my people from shooting you,” Kate gazed down the corridor, “when this is all over give it to me or dump it where my people will find it, okay?”

“Okay,” Buffy nodded; she turned as her slayer senses started to warn her of approaching danger, “LOOK OUT!”

Pushing Kate to one side, Buffy turned to face the far end of the corridor as she brought her pistol up to point towards the figure that was just appearing around the corner. Firing twice in rapid succession she saw her bullets strike their target. Willis looked up as the two heavy bullets hit him, he’d been replacing the magazine in the Uzi sub-machine gun he was carrying and hadn’t noticed Buffy and Kate until Buffy’d fired.

Staggering a little at the impact, Willis fired the Uzi from the hip sending Buffy and Kate scurrying for cover. Hiding behind a huge pot containing some sort of tropical plant, Buffy felt the bullets impact the pot and heard them zip by overhead. The loud boom of Kate’s shotgun almost deafened her but at least it stopped Willis from firing and allowed Buffy to shoot back.

Firing off the rest of her magazine, Buffy saw her own and Kate shots hitting the demon. Buffy’s eyes widened as huge holes appeared in Willis’ body. He didn’t go down but he definitely looked worried, firing off a short burst from the Uzi, Willis turned and disappeared around the corner and out of sight. Standing up cautiously, Buffy slipped a full magazine into her Colt; she glanced over at Kate who was feeding fresh rounds into her shotgun.

“That made him think twice,” Kate grinned at Buffy.

“What the hell have you got in that thing?” Buffy asked as she came up to the corner and carefully looked into the corridor beyond.

“Lead slugs,” Kate jacked around into the breach before loading an extra round, “didn’t think buckshot would do the trick.”

“Cool,” Buffy nodded her head, “I think he’s…”

“Where’d he go!?” a group of Federal agents had run up behind Buffy and Kate.

“I think he went down here,” Buffy pointed along the corridor with her pistol, “but…”

“We’ll take it from here,” the agent glanced down at the badge on Buffy’s belt, “detective.”

“Hey look,” Kate called out after the agents, “he’s wearing body armour so go for head shots!”

The agents disappeared down the corridor moving from cover to cover in a most professional way. Buffy had the felling that it wouldn’t help how professional the Feds were when they found Willis.

“Hey,” Kate tapped Buffy on the arm, “if they’re trying to get Holt out they’ll head for the parking lot under the hotel,” Kate started to trot in the opposite direction from the Feds, “I bet that’s where the monster’s heading.”

“You know this place pretty well then?” Buffy jogged along behind Kate.

“Yeah,” Kate slowed at a corner before checking to see it was clear, “I was running an operation here once trying to catch a hooker.”

“Don’t tell me,” Buffy sighed.

“You got it,” Kate glanced back to grin at Buffy, “your old school friend Cordelia Chase!”

“CRAP!” Cried Buffy bringing up her Colt; the demon must have doubled back and come out into the parking lot in front of them.

Getting off a couple of shots, Buffy ducked as the world exploded all around her in a shower of wood chips and lumps of plaster. A hail of fire forced both Buffy and Kate back as they fired wildly trying to put the demon off its aim. Across the garage the Feds burst from another door and started to fire at Willis. Turning with inhuman speed, Willis fired a long burst at the Feds sending them falling to the floor their bodies riddled with bullet holes.

The agent’s sacrifice allowed Buffy and Kate to get back into the action, firing into the demons back Buffy watched horrified as their bullets struck home making Willis and the demon inside him dance like a badly operated marionette. Both Kate and Buffy’s guns ran out of ammunition at the same time; Kate dropped her shotgun and hauled out her 9mm service pistol while Buffy searched her pockets for spare magazines. 

The demon had fallen to one knee now; his movements were slow and jerky as it struggled to reload the Uzi. Kate fired into the demons body steadily pumping round after round into the monster. Buffy slammed a fresh magazine into her Colt and joined Kate in her attempt at demolishing the demon. One of Buffy’s rounds hit Willis in the hand sending pieces of finger and the Uzi spinning through the air. Just as the slide locked back on an empty breach, Buffy watching in relief as the demon fell over backwards and lay still on the oily concrete floor.

“You think its dead?” Kate slipped another magazine into her pistol.

“Hope so,” Buffy replied reloading her own weapon, “maybe we have to wait ‘til it dies of lead poisoning.”

“Come on,” Kate started to advance on the hopefully dead demon, “we’ve gotta check it out before anyone else gets down here.”

“Right,” Buffy agreed as she moved to cover Kate, “just be careful and…”

Shots echoed around the garage as Kate shot the demon twice in the head, she nudged it with the toe of her boot.

“I think we got it,” Kate smiled as she re-holstered her gun.

“I’m not so sure,” Buffy watched in horror as Kate knelt down beside the creature, “Kate keep away from it!”

“Don’t worry,” Kate called looking over at Buffy, “it’s…!”

The demon’s hand moved like a striking snake, it grabbed Kate around the throat and started to pull her towards its open mouth. Kate gasped for breath as she struggled to disengage the hand from her throat, but however hard she fought the demon pulled her inexorably towards its open mouth. Buffy was at Kate’s side in an instant, she grabbed hold of the demons arm and heaved trying to loosen its grip on her friend. Using its arm with the ruined hand the demon struck Buffy across the chest sending her flying across the floor to land a couple of yards away.

Getting to her knees again, Buffy saw the tendrils appear from out of the demon’s mouth, they looked like the legs of a spider but far too thin to be used as such. A set of antenna was quickly followed by what looked like the head of some grotesquely large slug that searched blindly for Kate’s mouth. Hurling herself towards Kate, Buffy grabbed the demon and pulled with all her slayer might. The idea had come to her as soon as she’d seen the demon’s scrawny little legs.

The demon was only dangerous while it was in its host, outside of its host’s body; Buffy was betting it was helpless. Placing one foot on Willis’ head and another on his ribcage, Buffy heaved, slowly dragging the demon from the bloody wreak of Willis’ body. As more and more of the demon was dragged struggling from its ruined host, Buffy saw the full horror of the creature, its slug like body, the rubbery tentacles that grew in two clusters from each side of its body, it disgusting, hairy little legs. As the demon was yanked from its erstwhile host it slowly relinquished its grip on Kate until she was able to pull herself free.

Seeing the demon was almost completely free of Willis’ body, Buffy threw it to one side; whipping her pistol from her belt she shot it several times. It writhed on the concrete floor as the bullets struck and were sort of absorbed into its body. To her horror it started to drag itself towards her. Not knowing what else to do Buffy kept firing until her gun was empty.

“Stand aside please Miss Summers.”

Looking ‘round Buffy saw Wesley and Fred not half a dozen yards away; Fred carried a large leather bound book while Wesley held some sort of charm above his head.

“By the power of grey-skull,” intoned Wesley.

“Grey-skull!?” Chorused Kate and Buffy as they looked on in wonder.

“I command you to be gone!” Wesley ignored the interruption and pointed the charm at the demon.

Slowly a yellow beam of light reached out from the charm to engulf the demon. It writhed and squealed in agony as the yellow light consumed its body. In no more than a few seconds the only sign that the demon had been there was a small scorch mark on the garage floor.

“Grey-skull?” Kate asked again as he rubbed at her bruised throat.

“How did you do that?” demanded Buffy as she struggled to climb to her feet.

“Can’t explain now,” Wesley moved forward to take Buffy by the arm, “we better get going.”

“What?” Buffy looked around confused, she wanted to stay and make sure her new friend was alright.

“The police,” Fred joined Wesley in pulling Buffy towards an exit.

“I’ll be okay,” croaked Kate, “you go, I’ll be fine.”

Not resisting Buffy allowed herself to be pulled from the garage.

0=0=0=0


	8. Chapter 8

8.

**Do you wanna dance?**

The bruises on Kate’s neck were still visible so she’d wrapped a chiffon scarf around her neck to hide the marks. It felt weird walking into Caritas during the daylight and not with the objective of busting Cordelia Chase’s ass. That part of her life was all over now, there was a new commendation in her personnel file and her transfer to homicide was being processed. Just at the moment; if you discounted having her boyfriend of two years possessed by a demon and having to fill him so full of holes that he looked like a sieve, life was good for Kate Lockley. The bad stuff? Well, she’d adjust like she always did.

Stopping for a moment by the entrance, Kate let her eyes grow accustomed to the dim lighting of the club. Outside the day was a normal LA day, sunny and warm, inside the club the lighting was subdued with a slight red cast to it. Turning her head slightly she saw them sitting around a table between the stage and the bar. Kate instinctively checked that her pistol was in its accustomed place on her hip before walking over. As she approached she checked out the people around the table.

There was Chase, in an expensive and revealing dress, her hair bounced around her face as she shared some joke with Buffy. By comparison, Buffy looked care wore and tired although her face and eyes glowed with pleasure at whatever Chase was saying. Gunn sat next to Chase all expensive suit and shoes. He smiled in quiet amusement at whatever was being said. Wyndam-Pryce, however, had a slight scowl on his lips, Kate got the impression that he was the subject of whatever story was being told by Chase and didn’t like it. The last member of the little group was Winifred Burkle; she was holding one of Wyndam-Pryce’s hands and was trying not to look amused at Chase’s story.

The only other person in the room was the barman who was moving glasses around behind the bar. Kate didn’t know the guy’s name; she never had, although she’d seen him almost every time she’d come into Caritas. There was something ‘off’ about him, something Kate couldn’t put a finger on. When she looked at him her eye seemed to slide off him and she could never give a good description of the guy. It was one of those really odd things that seemed to be intruding into her life a lot just recently.

“KATE!” Buffy’s happy yell snapped Kate out of her detective muse; Buffy bounced out of her seat and embraced Kate in an enthusiastic bear hug. 

“Hey!” Kate gasped feeling her ribs start to bend, “And it’s nice to see you again too.”

“Sorry,” Buffy let Kate go and stood back to look at the older woman, “you feeling okay?” Buffy frowned, “I’m sorry, I’m feeling pretty good at the moment I forgot you were probably still hurting an’ dealing with stuff.”

“Not a problem,” Kate nodded to everyone else at the table, “I’ll survive, I always do.”

But not in the way Buffy obviously did, Kate guessed that Buffy’d had a couple of vodkas already this morning.

“Okay,” Buffy retook her seat, “now Kate’s here,” Buffy grinned at Kate as she sat down, “I’ll explain why I really came to LA.”

In the time it took Buffy to say those few words, Kate saw Buffy change from a bubbly cheerful young woman to someone who looked like she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders and had done so for a long time. Watching Buffy closely, Kate listened as she explained how something called the ‘old council’ had been destroyed and there were now lots of slayers running around with no back-up.

Knowing some of the background to this, Kate frowned; once there had been one slayer, sometimes two. There had always been a lot of these watchers. Now the situation was reversed, now there were lots of slayers and only a very few watchers and most of these were either too old or too inexperienced to be of any real help to the girls. Kate knew that going into situations without proper back-up could be dangerous, fatal even.

“…I don’t even know how many slayers there are in the LA area,” Buffy concluded.

“I might be able to help there,” Wesley pushed his glasses back up his nose.

“Yeah,” Fred grinned infectiously, “as soon as we realised what had gone down in Sunnydale we set about trying to find any slayers in LA.”

“Unfortunately,” continued Wesley, “it wasn’t until recently that we’ve had much luck and only then when we acquired a charm that tracks slayers.” Wesley paused, “As best as we can tell there are at least twelve slayers in the greater LA area. Five are actively patrolling by themselves. Two or three are running with groups of local vigilantes. Four are either too old or too scared to do much and one has taken to a life of crime.”

“Yeah,” Kate agreed, “I heard the stories of some thief who can apparently climb up the side of buildings and run faster than a squad car.”

“You’ve not tried to contact any of these slayers?” Buffy looked at Wesley her frown deepening.

“Well,” Wesley spread his hands and shrugged, “I was afraid I would be treading on your toes. After all you’d never bothered to contact me about the situation and what’s more…”

“Wes!” Cordelia spoke up nipping the blossoming argument in the bud, “I think we should maybe leave all the recriminations to later, okay?”

“But…!” Wesley was cut off when Fred grabbed his hand.

“Later, Wes,” Fred spoke firmly and quietly, “this is more important than your hurt feelings.”

“Yes,” Wesley took a deep breath and nodded his head, “of course, you’re quite right.” He looked across the table at Buffy, “I’m sorry Miss Summers, please continue.”

“No problemo,” Buffy gave Wesley a tight lipped smile, “what we need to do is get organised and contact these slayers. Too many girls have been killed because they don’t have any back-up. I don’t want that to happen here. Okay,” Buffy looked from face to face, “any suggestions on how we do this?”

For a moment silence descended on the room.

“I know!” Cordelia held up her hand as if she was still in school, “They could all be hookers working for me!”

“WHAT!?” Everyone turned to stare at Cordelia.

“Hey look,” Cordelia replied defensively to the faces that looked at her in a mixture of horror and dismay, “I don’t mean like _real_ hookers. Look,” Cordelia turned to Gunn hoping for support, “slayers have to get into loads of places, they mostly work at night, they’re young, attractive. What better disguise could they have?”

There was silence for a moment before Buffy spoke.

“I don’t think so, Cordy.”

“Miss Summers,” Wesley leaned on the table as he looked across at Buffy, “Miss Chase may have an idea of some merit here…”

“I do?” Cordelia beamed flashing perfect white teeth at everyone.

“If arrested or questioned by the police,” Wesley gestured to Kate, “what would be more natural for them to claim they work for a well known nightclub owner.”

“Yeah,” agreed Kate, “any officer stopping a girl on a minor beef would think twice about hassling a girl working for Cordelia.”

“Why?” Buffy asked simply.

“Look,” Kate grinned at Cordy, “they know Cordelia has Wolfram and Hart as her lawyers. Anything short of murder would be too much hassle to try and bring to court.”

“And,” Fred took up the argument, “any girls who didn’t want to pretend to be hookers could be put on our books as investigators.”

“Yeah, okay,” Buffy still sounded uncertain but in the place of any better suggestions, she finally nodded her head in agreement.

“Well, that’s settled then,” Wesley leaned back in his chair, “I suggest that Miss Chase and myself get together and work out the details later.”

“Umm,” Fred didn’t sound so sure, “you know, Wes I think I should do that…”

“But…” Wesley began but was cut off by Fred before he could speak.

“You’re too busy…” Fred explained.

“I am…?” Wesley frowned.

“And anyway you’re a bit of a fuddy-duddy,” Fred grinned at everyone around the table, “I think us girls would do better,” Fred glanced over at Kate, “maybe Kate could help out?”

“Sure, why not?” Kate agreed smiling to herself; it was obvious what was going on here, Fred didn’t want Wesley left alone with Cordelia, there was history there.

The next fifteen minutes were taken up with making rough plans on how to organise the LA slayers and how to try and contact other girls in the surrounding States. Kate sat back and let the conversation wash over her, she didn’t know a lot about the world of the ‘weird and wacky’ so thought it best to just listen for now. Perhaps sometime soon she could get Fred to explain things in more detail; in the meantime she’d just watch and listen.

Finding her eyes drifting once more over to where Buffy sat, Kate watched as the young woman sat, mostly quietly, drinking her drink. Every now and again the barman would surreptitiously slip a full glass into her hand. Kate caught his eye and frowned shaking her head; the barman guy just shrugged and turned away. Kate could see why no one else seemed to notice what was happening to Buffy, they were all wrapped up in their own little world. Being an outsider, Kate could see what was happening, perhaps if she could get Chase (she was supposed to be one of Buffy’s old school friends) alone and explain things ask her to keep an eye on Buffy, tell her friends in England maybe?

“Okay, that’s enough business for one day,” Cordelia rapped her knuckles on the table to getting everyone’s attention, “how about some fun?”

“Yeah!” smiled Fred, “What y’got planned, Cordy?”

“As some of you know,” Cordelia smiled knowingly as she spoke, “Lorne here,” she gestured at the barman, “is a demon who can read peoples destinies.”

“He is?” Kate found her right hand drifting towards her pistol.

“Lorne’s harmless,” Wesley whispered having seen Kate’s hand start to move.

“However,” Cordelia smiled fit to burst, “he can only ‘read’ people if they perform.”

“Perform?” chorused everyone other than Gunn who just sat there looking smug.

“Perform?” Fred asked, “Like Karaoke?”

“No,” Cordelia shook her head, “nothing so lame…Lorne can only read people when they Pole Dance!”

“Pole dance!?” Kate laughed, “Hey look you’re not getting me up there.”

“No, no, no! Like, later maybe,” Cordelia turned to face Buffy, “I think we should see what the future holds for Buffy!”

There was general agreement to this idea, even Kate thought it had merit, perhaps it would point out some stuff that Buffy needed to know, like about her drinking. Reluctantly, Buffy climbed to her feet and started to head for the stage.

“Oh no,” Cordelia laughed, “not so quick, you gotta change.”

“What!?” Buffy paused to stare down at Cordelia.

“Yeah,” Cordelia pointed towards the rear of the club, “like there’s costumes and stuff out back.”

After several minutes wait, Buffy reappeared in what Cordelia explained was the ‘Naughty Cheerleader’s’ outfit. The music started and Kate watched in amazement as Buffy started to dance slowly ‘with’ the pole. Shaking her head, Kate wondered if all slayers were that ‘bendy’ and the slayer super strength really helped holding some of the more difficult positions. If Buffy ever wanted to give up slaying, Kate thought, she could make a fortune in the erotic dance business.

Breathing a little heavily, Buffy finished her dance, as she climbed down from the stage to the applause of her friends, she thought pole dancing was a pretty good work out; maybe she’d start classes at Slayer Central. Letting herself be led over to the bar by Lorne she sat down on a stool and accepted a drink. The readings were private, what she told her friends was entirely up to her.

“Okay,” Lorne took a long pull on his Sea Breeze almost finishing the drink in one go, “I gotta tell you you’re the first person I’ve read in months that’s actually got a destiny worth talking about.”

“What?” Buffy didn’t really understand what the demon was saying but it sounded interesting.

“Look,” Lorne made himself another drink and topped Buffy’s up, “I normally just end up telling people what they want to hear, you know; their lives will get better, they’ll meet someone, they’ll do something important, they’ll stop biting people on the neck, you know the sorta thing?”

Nodding her head dumbly, Buffy sipped her vodka.

“But, it’s all a lie,” Lorne knocked back half of his Sea Breeze.

“But I have a destiny?” Buffy prompted, intrigued.

“Sure, sweet-cheeks,” Lorne looked like he was going to burst into tears, “you can’t stop it…”

“I can’t?” Buffy wanted to know what awaited her in the future.

“Okay, sweet-cheeks here we go,” Lorne took a deep breath, “very soon, in fact almost as soon as you get home you will have a major shock that will ultimately be life changing for you and your closest family and friends.” Lorne drank the other half of his Sea Breeze, “You’ll go away on a long journey but you’ll come back almost before you leave and finally you’ll stay in one place which isn’t your home for a year before going home…there’s something about the law as well.”

“Is that all?” Buffy asked disappointed.

“What do you mean ‘all’?” Lorne looked slightly hurt, “Isn’t that enough?”

“I gotta say,” Buffy pointed out, “that doesn’t sound like much of a destiny.”

“I didn’t say it was going to be exciting,” Lorne pointed out.

“But hey,” Buffy pouted, “slayer here, you’d think my destiny would be more…you know, more…well, interesting.”

“Well, there you go, sweetheart,” Lorne shrugged, “I can only see what the pole-dancing shows me.”

Sitting on the stool for a moment longer, Buffy finished her drink and started back towards her friends. By the time she got to the table she’d almost forgotten what her future held for her. Sitting down she ordered another vodka.

_And what have you got at the end of the day?  
What have you got to take away?  
A bottle of vodka and a new set of lies  
Blinds on the window and a pain behind the eyes._

_Scared for life, no compensation  
Private investigations._

The End.

Highlight and right click the link to hear Dire Straights sing 'Private Investigations'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxS-ICzjO6I


End file.
